Committed Pike, Student Senator, Football Team Manager, and May Graduate Embarking on a Financial Services Career
David Nguyen is proud to be a first generation Vietnamese American and proud to be a Pike. This highly engaged Dean’s List finance student, student senator, intramural athlete, committed Catholic and PIKE brother has an already full Linked-in presence and strong resume of trendsetting leadership.
Joining as a sophomore following the pandemic, Nguyen is now a May 2024 graduating senior. He says of PIKE, “PIKE has never just been a fraternity. I chose to join out of my own free will to help change the image of fraternities, as well as change how I carry myself. With the help of this Fraternity, I was able to connect with nearly everyone on campus and make long lasting friendships. For me, PIKE has been an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and have the confidence to show my true skills and who I am and what truly makes a PIKE.”
Born in Allen, Texas, a northern Dallas suburb, the Nguyen family moved to Haughton, Louisiana when he was four, and then to Ruston, Louisiana during Nguyen’s high school years. His family includes parents Phuong and Dung, and three older siblings, including brother Dan Nguyen, who was a founding father of PIKE’s Mu Kappa Chapter at Northwestern State University.
In high school Nguyen played first string middle linebacker on a Ruston team that made it to the semi-finals in 2019. Nguyen also participated in shotput and discus on the track team and was active in the Futures Business Leaders of America club.
Nguyen has continued his athletic and academic pursuits at ULM where he is majoring in finance and minoring in accounting. He’s a top student earning Dean’s List recognition in 2020-23. Nguyen has worked with a local credit union part-time during school and recently accepted a full-time position as a treasury financial accountant with Investar Bank at headquarters in Baton Rouge. He aspires to become a financial advisor and ultimately a chartered financial analyst.
Nguyen’s ULM campus activities are legend – vice president of the Catholic Campus ministry where he has staffed student retreats, helped lead more than $50,000 in fundraising through special events and has also served as webmaster and treasurer. In 2022 he co-founded the ULM Asian Student Association “to be able to share awareness to the communities of Asian American students on campus and be able to host events and increase community involvement.”
Nguyen is the College of Business and Social Science’s student government senator, and he is a member of the Finance Majors Association which interacts with ULM alumni in the finance field. With all of these activities, Nguyen also served as a manager for ULM’s Warhawk football team for a year. And with PIKE, he has served as assistant new member educator and been a part of an intramural champion volleyball team and an intramural football team that was runner-up champion.
In his limited spare time, Nguyen enjoys working out and activities such as tennis, pickleball, running, football, and volleyball. When asked about a little-known fact that others might not know, Nguyen notes his native language in the home was Vietnamese and he had to also learn English early in childhood.
Nguyen has numerous advisors who are admirers. PIKE’s Delta Region President Tommy Walpole (Louisiana-Monroe, Eta Omicron ’80) says, “David Nguyen is an outstanding young man who was an asset to Eta Omicron Chapter! His calm demeanor and well-respected opinion will be missed when he departs us in a few weeks. I look forward to his continuing support of Eta Omicron Chapter and Pi Kappa Alpha as he enters the alumnus phase of his life and all of us wish him nothing but the best. He earned it.”
Karl Yabut, director of College Campus Ministry for the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport says, “Over the last four years, David has grown tremendously as a man of character and faith. David’s involvement with the ULM Catholic Campus Ministry program has benefited tremendously as a member and as a student leader. David is a man of integrity and honesty – traits you expect from a great, servant leader. Traits that are hard to find in our world nowadays.”
Indeed, David Nguyen exemplifies the best of Pi Kappa Alpha – a scholar, an athlete, a student servant leader, a man of conviction and faith. Congratulations on your upcoming graduation David, best of luck in your career and thank you for bringing great credit to the Eta Omicron Chapter and PiKA.