For 2023 graduate Matthew Nguyen, his college journey has been a winding — and fruitful — road.
Nguyen started his Newman University experience as a seminarian at the St. Joseph House of Formation. During his second year, he had planned to discern out but then met his wife, Mariah (Stuever), during Totus Tuus — a Catholic summer youth program.
Nguyen decided to stay in the seminary for another year before leaving, after which he and Stuever began dating. He took a couple of years thereafter to focus on work and life before returning to Newman to pursue a bachelor’s degree in philosophy for theological studies.
“It was really, really humbling for me,” Nguyen said of his studies. “I’m not a very academic person, so I really enjoyed doing philosophy because it helped me expand my critical thinking. And the teachers here are wonderful, making sure I understand the topic well and working with me outside of office hours to make sure I understood what we were doing.”
One of Nguyen’s favorite professors was Assistant Professor of Theology Matthew Umbarger, who he said made class fun and enjoyable.
While a student, Nguyen participated in several Campus Ministry events and even took part in triathlon.
“It taught me a lot of mental toughness and mental fortitude, overcoming challenges and learning to push myself harder than I thought I could,” he said.
Nguyen had to juggle fatherhood and working during his studies at Newman as well.
“It was a real challenge,” he said. “It took a lot of sacrifice, teamwork and communication with my wife, since my schedule is really sporadic.”
The hard work paid off, though, as Nguyen walked across the commencement stage this past month with his bachelor’s degree.
Today, he works as a front-of-house operations lead at Chick-fil-A and hopes to move up the ranks to own his own store one day.
“Especially through Chick-fil-A, I’ve learned to build a better tomorrow,” he said. “Being present every day helps me realize that tomorrow is going to be better.”
This lesson is one that helped Nguyen through a challenging time a few years back, when he was set to graduate from Newman in 2020.
“But I’ve never been in college before, and I didn’t know you paid at the beginning of the semester,” he explained.
In fall 2019, Nguyen had an outstanding balance and had to take a couple years off to pay for it before he could graduate.
“That’s why it took me a while, but here we are, and it was actually probably one of the best lessons I’ve ever had in life,” he said. “Not everything will come straightforward. That little curveball really prepared me for work and unexpected things in life.”
Not everything will come straightforward. That little curveball really prepared me for work and unexpected things in life.
Matthew Nguyen ’23
Nguyen’s biggest piece of advice for current Newman students is to not be afraid to ask for help.
“I think especially when we’re young adults, we want to figure things out for ourselves and do things ourselves,” he said. “But as I’ve learned, even adults ask for help sometimes, and it’s not a bad thing to do.”
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