In 1975, Thi Trieu, an elementary school teacher, had to leave her home country of Vietnam as a refugee, and was unable to pursue her passion in teaching because of lack of understanding of the English language. She started off as a janitor, cleaning offices, restaurants and schools to make ends meet and then decided that she needed to enter into a career where she could determine her own destiny. Thi launched into the beauty industry and began to build her first salon and shortly after opened a second location. After running two salons successfully for over 15 years, Thi returned back to her love of teaching, however this time into the industry that had been her passion for almost 2 decades. Interestingly, from her days as a janitor, one of the schools she cleaned was Evergreen, a school 20 years later she would one day own and take from a local venture to a Nationally Accredited Institution of Higher Learning.
She shares, “I came to this country 30 years ago, without shoes on my feet, and any understanding of the English language. My students here are starting their new careers years a head of where I started; what I have been able to do in 30 years, they should be able to do in 5-10, because they know the language, have a plan, and have people that believe in them. It’s a wonderful industry that has fed and given opportunities for me and my husband and our five children. My goal as an educator is help see our students reveal the gifts that is within them.” – See more at: http://www.evergreenbeauty.edu/about-us/
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