Goodwill

A Gift to Goodwill – Hoa Tat Nguyen

“When it comes to English, Hoa exemplifies the two D’s, dedication and determination.”

In March of 2006, while most of the one million residents of Vietnam’s major port city Da Nang were going about their normal business, two of its citizens were locking the door to their family- owned grocery store for the last time.

 That morning, Hoa Tat Nguyen and his wife Nan walked away from their business and friends.  They had made a decision that would ultimately bring them to a place where they would reunite with long-missed family members. Carrying little more than the clothes on their backs, Hoa and Nan embarked on the 7,600 mile journey to Portland, Oregon. There a joyous reunion unfolded with Hoa’s mother, daughter and brothers.

 In January of 2008, Hoa found employment with Goodwill as a Broadway store donation attendant. Since that day, Hoa has proven to be one of the hardest working employees store manager Ryan Curtis has ever encountered. “Hoa comes to work with a determined spirit every day. Not only can I count on him to take care of our back door, but our customers as well”, says Ryan.

 Despite Hoa’s limited ability to speak English, Ryan gets more customer compliments about him than anyone else on his staff. Hoa maintains a very humble attitude about all the positive praise he receives, often just shrugging and saying that it’s just part of his job.

 In addition to being dedicated to doing his job, Hoa is also fiercely motivated to learn the difficult English language. Currently he is enrolled in Goodwill’s ESL program where he attends class twice a week. Very thankful for our English program, Hoa says his growing vocabulary is really helping him to integrate with the Portland community. “When it comes to English, Hoa exemplifies the two D’s, dedication and determination,” says ESL instructor David Cassidy.

 When asked what he likes most about working for Goodwill, Hoa says he likes practicing English with the friendly staff and customers at the Broadway store while doing a job that helps advance the company’s goal to make a difference in peoples’ lives.