KimLinh Ngo (Georgia Gwinnett College)
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - When one of Georgia Gwinnett College's new graduates walks across the stage this weekend, she'll make history for the school with her academic achievement.
KimLinh Ngo will be the school's first student to graduate with three bachelor's degrees - all on the same day.
Ngo started at college as a pre-nursing student but felt called in another direction. A little bit of guidance from her advisor helped her figure out her path.
"She asked me if there was a course I had really enjoyed during my time at GGC, and the class that immediately came to mind was Introduction to Programming. I found programming to be both challenging and exciting, and it was a field that sparked my curiosity in a way that other courses hadn’t," Ngo said.
Ngo decided to continue working on her bachelor's degree in health science while also adding degrees in business administration and management information systems.
And she did it all while working at two restaurants to pay for her classes.
Ngo said her parents' sacrifices helped inspire her to push to make the most of her formal education. They emigrated from Vietnam to the United States in the early 1990s, eventually settling in Duluth, Georgia.
"Throughout my life, I’ve seen them work tirelessly, day and night, to provide for my siblings and me. Both of them work blue-collar jobs at the same company, waking up at 3 a.m. Monday through Friday and coming home around 4 p.m. After work, they sometimes take on landscaping jobs for extra income. On weekends, they’re up at 8 a.m. and work until sundown doing more landscaping," Ngo said. "Witnessing their hard work to pay the bills, support our family, and save for emergencies has been a huge motivation for me. It’s made me determined to work harder so one day I can retire them and ease their burdens."
After graduating, Ngo hopes to find a position in either data analysis or software engineering.