Grad Student Profile: David Nguyen

David Nguyen leads with story — his family’s, his community’s and now his own. A first-generation Vietnamese American from Greensboro, he traces his path to graduate school to parents who left Vietnam and set a new course so their children could go further. When he discovered NC State’s no-cost Visit NC State program in 2023, that access mattered: navigating applications without English-speaking parents meant learning every step himself. On campus, conversations with graduate students, faculty, and the department head made the choice clear. After earning his master’s in 2025, David is closing out his first semester in the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Ph.D. program. He’s studying how storytelling shapes identity and belonging, and he’s using his own to make space for others: first-gen, Asian American, and anyone who needs to hear that their words and worlds belong in the academy.

Tell us about your journey to graduate school and what led you to NC State.
My journey to graduate school sits on the shoulders of my identities. When I think of “journey,”  I think of storytelling. It’s important for me to let others know this because storytelling is what got me here. I am a first-generation college student, Vietnamese American/Asian American from Greensboro, NC. Letting others hear those key words, identities, and story gives people the chance to understand who I am. My story starts with my mom and dad, who never had the chance to finish high school in Vietnam; they took the opportunity to come to the United States to give their kids a chance at doing something that they never could. Now I can proudly say I am the first in all the generations of my family to pursue a Ph.D.

What led me to NC State was back in 2023, I was looking around for any type of information about Graduate school and saw the “Visit NC State Program”, I applied for that and got in. It was a program that was designed to let prospective graduate students come to NC States campus at no cost. That no cost was so important to me because being first generation but also having parents that didn’t speak English meant I had to learn everything myself and find help in my own way. I was able to meet other grad students and get to have conversations with so many professors and the department head, from there I fell in love with NC States campus and their communication department.

Fast forward to 2025, and I finished my master’s degree earlier this year with no debt to my name. Now I am wrapping up my first semester as a Ph.D. student in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media.

What does being an NC State graduate student mean to you?
Being a NC State graduate student means changing the narrative. It means breaking generational curses and forever changing the lives of my future kids. It means overcoming challenges and opinions and negative thoughts, and it means rewriting the story of who I am. It means facing the fears I had with my research and facing those head-on with confidence.

Tell us about your research
My research lies at the intersection of rhetoric, race, and media studies–particularly how Vietnamese people and culture are rhetorically constructed in U.S. media. I explore popular forms of Vietnamese digital media utilizing the interdisciplinary nature of this degree, focusing on the social, cultural, rhetorical, philosophical, and political elements of this topic. More specifically, I find media that depicts Vietnamese perspectives and not just U.S. voices. I use my identities to provide unspoken narratives and stories that were otherwise not highlighted.

My teaching experience started back at the beginning of my undergraduate degree. I acted as a liaison, mentor, and coach for first-year exploratory students in 5 courses at UNC Greensboro. I used that teaching experience as the foundation for my teaching during my master’s program. I was the instructor of 4 communication courses titled “Public Speaking 101”.

How has your semester been thus far and is graduate school what you expected?
A Ph.D. semester is extremely different from a Master’s degree semester. It was different because I came in not learning how to be a graduate student anymore; I was learning how to join scholarly conversations and finding out who I am within that scholarship. The semester has been hard, and it has involved a lot of reading and reflecting. Not only was I starting a new program, but I was starting a new chapter in my life. I was balancing between celebration for finishing a master’s degree and excitement for starting a ph.d. degree. I had to remind myself constantly that I deserve to be here. Being first-generation meant I kept feeling like I wasn’t supposed to be in certain spaces. Luckily, I’ve had my community around me, people like professors and my cohort, my roommates who were also in graduate school, and the newfound family I have in Raleigh. They helped support me and remind me that I do belong here.

Graduate school was not at all what I expected; it’s challenging and hard in the best possible way. It forces me to learn so much about my research but also about myself. It has challenged me to go outside the box and continue to develop as a human being. I had to learn what networking meant in a campus 10x the size of my undergrad. I’ve had to ask for help and create a community here at NC State, and in the triangle as a whole.

How has the Graduate School and/or NC State helped you with your professional development?
Working within the Graduate School as a Graduate Extension Assistant has taught me how to market myself and put myself out there. I’ve been encouraged to talk about my experiences as a graduate student. Within my job, it forces me to lean into communications as a whole. Learning new skills like video editing, branding, and influencer culture.

What advice do you have for new or current graduate students?
It’s okay to not know what you are doing. The beauty of graduate school is embracing that mystery and finding answers to your questions. Do what graduate students do best and not only research your own field but also research potential networking opportunities, research places that you join a club, a cool new restaurant, or the triangle as a whole. Embrace that uncomfortable feeling and make it comfortable. Learning is a beautiful thing, so never stop learning. Never stop being a student in life. That means you will continue to grow and find new things in life.  

Tell us something interesting about you.
I had a “Top 100 Movie” scratch off poster and completed it this past year. I am also left handed!

Learn more about the Ph.D. in Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media