Spring 2025 Winner of the Pullan & Young Supporting Prisoners’ Families Scholarship

Linh Anh Nguyen Hoang

Linh Anh’s experience with tragedy and loss has taught her the importance of resilience. Determined not to let the past define her future, she remains focused on pursuing her goals. Congratulations Linh Anh, we admire your strength and perseverance!

Read her essay here:

“He killed his wife by hitting her with a weapon”. I’ve read countless painful incidents like this on the news since I gained consciousness growing up and acknowledge how cruel this world is, without knowing one day I will be the main character.

I was thirteen when I no longer had a family. My parents was always arguing, and I remember me and my siblings always gathered in a room playing something to comfort each other. Until one day dad decided to break my mom’s skull with a hammer, at 2am in the morning. I will never forget the image of my mom unconscious laying on the puddle of her own blood, it’s engraved in my head with nightmares and tears. Me and my five other siblings were screaming and crying. That was the first time I called 911, the dispatcher’s voice made me shiver, it broke me apart. We hugged each other as our mom got moved into an ambulance, and my dad got handcuffed and taken away. My mom's life was in critical condition with only a ten percent chance of survival. I stayed home that night with my youngest 5 years old brother and other younger ones waiting for a phone call from my sister about my mom’s condition; surrounded by police. She was alive, but paralyzed. We lived in other people’s houses for months. My dad was never to be heard of again, all I know is he is in jail waiting for custody, but now has been moved to Mississippi Prison, and the status is unknown.

I changed. I worked hard for my future and others. I saw my goal and stood up after everything, knowing I still had my future and the people I loved ahead of me. Understanding fears won't help me. I used my fears and pain as reasons to push myself harder. I used it as a tool to climb up and build myself. I found my interest in science and the urge to practice every experiment, even the tiniest details.

Going to college not only changes my future, but also my loved one and to help my community. I never want anyone to go through the same thing I did. The money I received from this scholarship will help me invest for my future, paying for my college which is my heaviest burden. Without the need of paying so much student loan after graduation I can graduate with a job and more income to help my sister take care of my mom, siblings, and pay for the house rent. It gives me opportunities I never think I could have due to financial hardship. I can join a club I wish but never had money to pay for, I can join a research program I want, and explore extensive pathways to expand my potential. I saw myself becoming a pathologist. I want to give it the best I could. Becoming someone determined to use their excellence and knowledge to help others and their loved ones. Because more than anyone, I understand the terror of losing someone you love, and the idea of missing them forever. I will live like there are no tomorrow, I will try until I can’t, all I need is a chance.

I appreciate the doctors, they are the angels that perform magics and miracles I once forgot after bedtime.

For that, I want to be the hope, the miracle.