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When Kimmy Duong fled Vietnam in 1975, amid the fall of Saigon, she arrived in America with $30 in her pockets and two suitcases.
On Friday, Duong and her husband, Long Nguyen, were honored at George Mason University for their $20 million donation to the school.
The celebratory event was held at the school’s Long and Kimmy Nguyen Engineering building named after the couple. With the donation, the university’s School of Computing will be named after Nguyen and Duong.
The Kimmy Duong Foundation donation will be used primarily to fund scholarships.
Ken Ball, the dean of the College of Engineering and Computing, said Duong’s story is an American one.
“It’s a story that shows determination, resilience, success and gratitude, and the story’s main character is our friend, Kimmy Duong,” Ball said.
In April 1975, Duong was uprooted from her life when the Vietnam War ended and the southern capital city of Saigon fell.
After arriving in the U.S. with $30 and a couple bags she carried from a refugee camp, Duong found a job with IBM and became a successful computer systems analyst.
Eventually, Duong and Nguyen founded their own company, Pragmatics Inc. in Reston.
Trishana Bowden, the vice president of advancement and president of the GMU Foundation, said the donation will be used to establish two scholarship endowments and another endowment to support student success initiatives.
These endowments and the event honoring them, George Mason University President Gregory Washington said, are about “opportunity.”
“Through your support, you help us take on the responsibility for allowing others to dream and to have great opportunities,” Washington said to Nguyen and Duong, who were sitting in the audience.
Duong spoke about her journey to America and the fears she had leaving her native country.
“America has been wonderful. She has adopted me, accepted me and given me what I need most: love and opportunities,” Duong said.
Now, Duong said, she and her husband are giving back as the “adopted children” of America.
