Walking the halls of PRHS, Brandon Nguyen is no stranger to his peers. Through his work in leadership and as ASB president, there’s nothing he hasn’t done for the betterment of the school. Nguyen has been representing PRHS through Leadership for his four years in high school. He originally was hesitant to join Leadership, but was convinced to join by his older sister, believing it would be a good opportunity for him.
“Yeah I was never actually supposed to take leadership because I never wanted to sign up for it. And the only reason why I joined leadership is because of my sister. I had a conversation with her and I remember her telling me, ‘I think you should join leadership. It’s a good opportunity.’ So I decided to listen to her since she’s my big sister,” Nguyen said.
Despite his initial hesitation to join, Nguyen has had many roles, including freshman and sophomore class president, leadership director, leader of superintendent advisory committee, co-vice president of interact club, student representative on the district board, and is currently serving as the ASB president.
In addition to Nguyen’s leadership contributions, he revived GANAS, a peer-led academic support and mentorship program alongside senior Kyle Dart. The program was designed to help students who are struggling academically regain confidence and motivation through peer-to-peer support. Beginning with Nguyen and Dart, the club has grown to involve 16 trained mentors who meet weekly with their mentees, focusing on setting academic goals, building study habits, and providing personal encouragement.
“The program is built on the belief that consistent, small efforts like reviewing notes after school or offering a safe space to talk can create real, lasting change,” Nguyen said.
I think Brandon is deserving of every spot. He does a lot of work in the community and tons of volunteer work. – Ethan Castelli, 12
GANAS also aims to improve grades and restore belief in students who feel left behind with a focus on genuine connection, accountability, and community. The club is currently expanding into a formal semester-long elective and long-term nonprofit project where students can receive credits for mentoring.
Nguyen has set the groundwork for the Mentorship Club to continue after he’s left PRHS, but Nguyen’s path hasn’t always been so smooth.
Growing up in an Asian family, Nguyen felt the pressure of grades and school constantly. From a young age, Nguyen was worried about his future such as college and his career.
“I had to try to figure out what my future was when I was still in middle school, like what college I wanted to go to or what I wanted to do after high school, my major, and other stuff like that. It’s hard when you’re a kid because you don’t want to think about that,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen felt pressure from many aspects of his life, including his peers. He felt like everything was a competition and he needed to be the best at everything, putting an even bigger burden on himself.
“I didn’t just face academic pressure from my family, but also from how the world would see me or how the people around me would know me. I felt like I had to compete against them.”
As a result of his focus on academics, he rarely talked to friends and began to socially distance himself. It wasn’t until his junior year that he was able to balance his schoolwork and friendships without facing large amounts of uncertainty.
In the coming fall, Nguyen plans to attend the University of California San Diego to study cognitive science, the study of thought, learning, and mental organization, which draws on aspects of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and computer modeling (Oxford Languages). Nguyen originally hoped to major in computer science because of his love for technology, but decided to switch to cognitive science after finding out about its interdisciplinary factor. This allows students to study a variety of fields with a focus on humanities.
The change of mind also stems from Nguyen’s desire to remain connected to people in his career.
“For my major, I don’t think I want it to only be technology. I think I want it to at least have a mixture of people in there because I’ve always surrounded myself with people that I want to talk to and I feel like everyone deserves a chance to be spoken to. I want to do that major because I want to help people.”
After college, Nguyen plans to stay near San Diego in hopes of starting his own tech company.
