Growing up in Vietnam, Linh Nguyen was initially intimidated by the idea of research, and misled by the country’s promotion of jobs and industry opportunities. “It led to my misconception that research work tended to be more ‘theoretical’ and less ‘practical,’ which I later discovered to be false claims,” recalls Nguyen, who discovered at UVM how research might lead to cleaner water for New York City through the Upper Esopus watershed—and to a Barrett Scholarship. “I was excited because it would not only give me my first taste of doing research, but it would also be the first time for me to apply what I had learned from my electrical engineering minor to the type of work in my major, which is civil engineering, and specifically in area of water resource.”

Flash forward a few years, and Linh is a Barrett Scholar, an Engineer of the Year, and newly invigorated to consider environmental issues caused by climate change and urban and industrial development. “The motivation and resilience I cultivated during my studies at UVM really helped me find the meaning of my work and the endurance that it required,” she says.