Quỳnh Nguyễn journey to Colorado actually began in Vietnam, where she was born. Her dad served in the South Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. He fought alongside American soldiers trying to defeat the communist. Unfortunately, when the war ended in 1975, the South Vietnamese lost and the country fell into the hands of the communist. In 1979, she and her family escaped from Vietnam on a small fishing boat. Her parents wanted a better life for their children in the United States. The family eventually made it to a refugee camp in Hong Kong. In 1980, Quynh and her family came to the United States where a world of possibilities and opportunities awaited. Quynh was 6 years old.