Play me coach!

May 7, 2007, 4:54PM

Checkmate in Room 144
Chess club inspires area students
By CLAUDIA FELDMAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Good things happen in Room 144. Which is why, when the 3:45 school bell rings at Pershing Middle School, the 40-odd members of the chess club do not go home.

Instead, they stream into Nhut “John” Nguyen’s classroom for their end-of-the-year party, ready for a chess tournament, barbecue, trophies and prizes.

Think about four dozen 11-,12-, 13- and 14-year-olds staying after school for an activity that doesn’t involve a ball or an electronic device.

Think about that many kids jockeying for a spot next to their favorite teacher.

“Mr. Nguyen,” they beg, “play me!”

He’s in his element, if only for a few weeks longer. The party marks the end of an era for him — he’s leaving Pershing at the end of the month for a school closer to home, a second graduate degree and, eventually, a new and more lucrative career.

Still, he enjoys the party as if there is no tomorrow. He learned to live that way a long time ago.

Nguyen, 32, was born in Vietnam. When he was 5, he and his family fled to Thailand in a leaky boat. He remembers he thought he was going fishing and that he begged to go home when he realized the adventure was actually a nightmare.

The Nguyens spent about a year in a refugee camp in Thailand, about a year in Ithaca, N.Y., then settled in Houston. While Nguyen attended the Michael A. DeBakey High School for Health Professions and dreamed of becoming a doctor, his parents worked 12-hour days, seven days a week at the family Laundromat.

“They still work too hard,” Nguyen says. “That is why I have to try to do well, so they can have an easier life. Teaching is fun for me, but it doesn’t get me to where I want to be in order to help them.”

Here is the full article.