Phuong Nguyen never considered himself a math and science guy. At least not until middle school at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pearl City, where teacher Sylvia Tsuda distilled for him the essence of what the two disciplines are all about.

"She constantly asked us to think about how and why things are the way they are," says Nguyen, now 17. "It piqued my curiosity to think in those terms. Now whenever I go outside and look around, I think about how or why things happen or what may have occurred to affect the outcome."

Nguyen certainly has had much to reflect upon over the past several weeks. What factors contributed to him and his Damien Memorial School rocketry team colleagues securing a spot in a national competition? How exactly did the team manage a historic top-20 finish amid all those more experienced teams?

Through what life-spanning course of events did he find himself delivering the salutatorian speech before hundreds of classmates, family and friends at Saturday’s commencement?

For Nguyen the quantum leap, the irreducible moment of truth, occurred when he was just a year old and his parents, Nhan Nguyen and Quynh Bui, made the bold decision to leave their native Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, for what they hoped would be a better life in the United States.

"They told me later that they thought there would be more opportunities for me and my younger sister in Hawaii," Nguyen says.

Nguyen’s parents have supported the family by selling T-shirts at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet and Marketplace, difficult work that yields modest gains.

"They don’t earn much, but they make the best of it," Nguyen says proudly. "They’ve experienced difficulties, but they always taught us to do our best and never give up, no matter what life throws at us."

Nguyen says he’s tried to apply the lessons to every aspect of his life, particularly in his academic pursuits. This year Nguyen earned his class’ Silver Medal for General Excellence, Gold Medal for Proficiency in Mathematics and Gold Medal for Proficiency in Spanish.

Nguyen also served as captain of the school’s nascent rocketry team, which placed 19th out of 101 teams at the Team America Rocketry Challenge in Virginia earlier this month.

"We were intimidated at first because the other teams had so much more experience than we did," Nguyen says. "We used this to push ourselves further and to try to push past our limitations so that even if we didn’t succeed, we’d know we did our best."

This fall, Nguyen will attend Carleton College in Minnesota, where he intends to study biochemistry.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.