50 Years After Fleeing Saigon, Donor Establishes ‘Giving Back’ Scholarship at UMD

As North Vietnamese forces advanced into Kimmy Duong’s home city of Saigon in the spring of 1975, she and her coworkers at IBM hoped their employer would be able to help them escape.

As a programmer-analyst for the American computing company, she knew she was a likely target if she remained in the country. “But the communists came too soon,” she recalled.

Forced to find her own way to safety, she desperately climbed aboard an American military bus. Though she had no papers, the driver told her not to worry and welcomed her aboard.

Now, as she commemorates the 50^th anniversary of her arrival in the U.S., Duong is extending her own helping hand.

Through her Kimmy Duong Foundation, she has pledged $1 million to establish the Giving Back Maryland Promise Scholarship, funding need-based awards for University of Maryland undergraduate journalism and public policy majors from Maryland or Washington, D.C., with hopes to further inspire students who exhibit a strong work ethic and a commitment to helping others. As part of the Clark Challenge for the Maryland Promise Program, the gift will be matched dollar for dollar, thanks to support from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation and UMD.

The gift builds on Duong’s $2 million contribution to the university in 2017, which funded scholarships for engineering and business students.

“In my heart, I always remember and appreciate the country taking me in, helping me,” she said. “I want to pay back the country, the school who helped me when I first came.”

While she didn’t attend UMD herself, seven of her nieces and nephews have graduated from the university with engineering or computer science degrees. After she fled Vietnam solo, a helicopter transported her to a Wake Island-bound ship; she eventually landed in Rockville, Md., and was rehired by IBM. Her family soon followed, braving treacherous conditions by boat to join her.

Duong’s husband, Long Nguyen, had taught computer science at Georgetown University and knew of the University of Maryland’s prestige. The couple encouraged their nieces and nephews to become Terps.

“Without an education, I could not be here where I am,” said Duong, who attended the University of Saigon. “Education is the basis for them to grow.”

Now, after serving for three decades as vice chairman and chief financial officer of her husband’s information technology consulting firm, Pragmatics, Duong is focusing on opening those educational doors for others. Launched in 2015, the Kimmy Duong Foundation funds scholarships at around a dozen schools, including the latest at UMD.

“We’re really grateful for what you have done for our university … and for all the young people that you’ve given the opportunity to get a world-class education,” UMD President Darryll J. Pines said to Duong and Nguyen at a ceremonial gift signing on Tuesday at the Stamp Student Union.

Duong hopes the gift will set off a chain reaction to help future learners and leaders.

“That is my motto to the students: giving back and paying forward,” she said. “I want them to accept (help) today because they need it. But tomorrow, I expect them to give back so the next generation will be able to benefit.”