Friday, April 13, 2007
Michelle Tran has an insatiable interest in nearly everything and almost anybody. Eager and curious, she said she likes to take risks and step outside of her comfort zone, which, in high school, included calling complete strangers to hear about their stories.
“It’s when you get to meet people and get to know them,” she said, “You learn people can surprise you.”
Tran, Derby senior, works as a student assistant at the Dole Institute of Politics. She’s a 2006-07 KU Woman of Distinction and will attend graduate school at Harvard this fall to pursue her master’s degree in public policy.
Tran’s parents came to the United States from Vietnam in 1975. She grew up in a red brick house built by her father near Wichita’s McConnell Air Force Base on a plot of land larger than 10 acres. She said she used to watch air shows from the roof and grew various vegetables in the yard during the summertime.
Tran speaks four languages — English, Vietnamese, Russian and Arabic. She’ll be playing in an African drumming ensemble this Sunday at the Sisimuka Africa cultural celebration in the Woodruff Auditorium. Tran said great percussion and drumming “just makes me feel like dancing.”
She’s learning how to play the accordion and the banjo. Tran also dabbles in flamenco dancing, rugby and calligraphy. She said her mom, who had beautiful handwriting, had several old calligraphy pens when Tran was young. To learn more, Tran checked out all of the calligraphy books at the library.
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Tran speaks four languages — English, Vietnamese, Russian and Arabic. She’s learning how to play the accordion and the banjo. Tran also dabbles in flamenco dancing, rugby and calligraphy. She said her mom, who had beautiful handwriting, had several old calligraphy pens when Tran was young. To learn more, Tran checked out all of the calligraphy books at the library.
“It’s pretty special when you have a handwritten note or an invitation,” she said. “Somebody put work into that.”
At the Dole Institute of Politics, Tran helps with study groups and creates advertisements and flyers. Bill Lacy, director of the institute, said student assistants were heavily integrated into the program, allowing them to meet world leaders and gain workplace responsibility.
Lacy said Tran was bright, personable and had the determination to do just about anything.
“She’ll be where she chooses to be in 20 years — whether she’s serving in congress, running a business somewhere, being a scholar,” he said, “she has the will to make that happen.”
Tran said she wanted to work at Dole to “figure out where to hang my hat.” She said after graduate school, she wants to work as a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department.
“I just want to see more people working together,” Tran said.
Because her parents didn’t have the opportunity for college in Vietnam, she said it was amazing how in one generation, her two brothers, two sisters and herself had all that they had.
“People are given so much,” Tran said. “I’m amazed when I look around me and see what’s made from the human mind.”
Kansan staff writer Brian Lewis-Jones can be contacted at bljones@kansan.com.
— Edited by Stacey Couch
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