Roselyn Nguyen

Pictured above is the local Streets to Success campaign that juniors Jen and Roselyn Nguyen have organized. Their ultimate goal is to bring education to homeless children. “We work with a lot of kids and we see that if they don’t have an education it’s a disadvantage for them,” Jen said. “I feel very sad for these little kids that lack [an education] so I think [the project] is such a great way to make not just myself more educated on the matters but everyone else.” Used with permission from Roselyn Nguyen

Dirty pavement absorbs the blazing heat from the sun as it beats down on the few souls brave enough or forced to be standing in the sauna of what an Austin summer is. One can see the waves of heat coming off of the cars as the heat holds a suffocating grip on their airways, making it so hard to breathe in the muggy air. For the homeless in the Austin area, this is a typical day for them during the summer season.

With the growing issue of homelessness in Austin, some students chose to focus on spreading awareness on the lack of education in the homeless community for this year’s DECA competition. The “Streets to Success” project was created by juniors Jen and Roselyn Nguyen in order to inform and ultimately bring easier access to education to the homeless community. 

“We really connected with the homeless people in our community,” Jen said. “We feel [that] they are so vulnerable, especially the kids, because they don’t have educational opportunities.”

Both Jen and Roselyn, who are twin sisters, have been working as tutors at Kumon, an educational center that helps kids learn reading and math, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Both have seen the effects of education on kids.

“We saw the importance of education during times where many individuals couldn’t afford an education,” Roselyn said. “We believe now [that] COVID is still impacting those who want an education but cannot afford one. That’s why we wanted to initiate this project.”

Starting this project was something that had been planned for a while, according to Roselyn.

“I initially started this project because it was something I have always wanted to start as a passion project in high school,” Roselyn said. “I saw the opportunity when my sister and I wanted to compete in DECA, but we definitely want to still continue this project even after DECA competitions.”

According to Jen, the project is supposed to target kids and younger audiences.

“We work with a lot of kids and we see that if they don’t have an education it’s a disadvantage for them,” Jen said. “I feel very sad for these little kids that lack [an education] so I think [the project] is such a great way to make not just myself more educated on the matters but everyone else.”

One of the main goals behind this project is to spread awareness over the lack of education in the homeless community 

“A lot of people don’t realize how big and severe the issue is,” Jen said. “We want to mitigate the stigma behind homelessness because I know that a lot of people tend to see a homeless person on the street and just think about all the negative aspects of it. We just want to find a way for us to spread awareness about it.”

To begin spreading awareness, the sisters plan on using social media and the internet to get their word out.

“We think [social media] is one of the main proponents to our project because a lot of people use social media,” Jen said. “We’re making posts and also being in contact with some schools so that we can implement some workshops.”

According to Jen, these workshops are going to take place at elementary schools with younger kids and possibly move on to older generations of schools.

“We’re thinking of making a community awareness video and then showing the elementary kids this video,” Jen said. “Then we’re doing a pre and then post quiz so we get their knowledge of homelessness before watching the video and then after to see if they changed or if they learned anything new.”

Coming up with ideas for collaborative types of projects can be difficult if they’re not done with the right people.

“I really like working with my sister because it’s easy to communicate with her because we literally are with each other 24/7,” Jen said. “It’s also a really good way to synthesize our ideas because we have lots of strong emotions about homelessness and the Austin area.”

This project has some exciting plans coming up, according to Roselyn, and will be partnering with different groups to spread awareness about the lack of education for the homeless.

“As of now, we’ve reached out to schools in the district and are currently waiting on responses,” Roselyn said. “We hope to potentially implement tutoring workshops in the future, especially in prominent places of homelessness in the greater Austin area, where we [can] provide access to education for all.”