Phong Nguyen - Our Team

Phong grew up in Portland Oregon, the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the USA. As Vietnamese immigrants, his family of 8 was put in public housing in the early 80s with other immigrants from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. They found comfort in this community where everyone had the same struggles, uncertainty, and dreams of a better life while also bringing a diversity of traditions, foods, and language into this strange, scary, new, and exciting environment. Phong’s parents emphasized the importance of education and allowed them the independence to learn, not by choice but by necessity as they worked hard to provide for the family. This autonomy allowed Phong to thrive as he was constantly outside playing with his friends, exploring the neighborhood, and soon finding school enriching as it helps him answer so many of his curiosities of the world.

Phong earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oregon before embarking on a six-month backpacking journey across Western and Eastern Europe. This life-changing adventure shaped his worldview and deepened his appreciation for cultural and social differences, the very things that make people and communities so unique and beautiful.

Phong has always had a great passion for sports, especially basketball, so he started Tsunami Basketball in Portland Oregon. It is a program for Asian American youths to build confidence through sports as they learn fundamental skills, discipline, compete, and most importantly have fun during this process. After 12 successfully joyous years helping hundreds of kids achieve their goals, his wife’s job brought his family with three kids to Hong Kong. He brings his love for teaching kids here, with energy, joy, laughter, compassion, and kindness. After being a teaching assistant at another school in Hong Kong for four years, he’s now here at Bloom Academy, excited to make