Young academic Sunny Nguyen tells Jennifer Pittorino about his work in the community and his connection to Maribyrnong.
Can you tell us your name, title, and where you work?
I’m 21 years old and I am a Vietnamese-Australian living at Footscray. I work within the public health research space with The University of Melbourne, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) (which is located with the Royal Children’s Hospital) and Deakin University.
Tell us a bit about you and what you do?
I work on quite a few different projects actually, since I have 3 different roles. I work to engage children and young people to co design resources related to disaster resilience, which is very important seeing how natural disasters are becoming more and more common with climate change. There was a project to improve how asthma is managed in Melbourne’s west going on for the past 2-3 years. I used to work at cohealth supporting community engagements in that area, but now with the MCRI, I’m investigating how effective that project was and what the learnings were. At Deakin, there is this new technology being developed to test for bowel cancer, and my role there is to make sure that the tool is usable and efficient for everyone.
Tell us about your work with the Maribyrnong Youth Advisory Committee.
I have been with the Maribyrnong Youth Advisory Committee for about 3 years now. I’m currently the Chair, but I started off as a member that was keen to be involved in the community and help shape how council supports other young people. We are doing very interesting work, especially on topics that young people find most pressing, including climate change and wellbeing, and even how they are connected.
What’s your connection to Maribyrnong/Hobsons Bay?
I’d say the community in Footscray is quite close, though it is changing a bit. Maribyrnong Youth Services are a very supportive team and Phoenix Youth Centre too is such an amazing space to be in as a young person.
What, if anything, would you change about where you live?
For me, if I wanted to change something, it would definitely be to do something about the air pollution that is so high in our community. It was concerning to me as a resident, but as I came into the research space, I found that my experience was true and there is a lot of evidence on how bad the air pollution is where I live. So definitely please change that!
What do you like about where you live?
I’d say I like to spend time at Footscray Park. I don’t live too close to it, but definitely a distance where I would go there to relax and have a timeout on the busy life.
Tell us something people would be surprised to know about you.
Not sure if it surprising, but it has become a hobby of mine to learn the streets and navigate around Melbourne 🙂
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I’d like to use this opportunity to thank everyone in my life right now. My parents, my brother, my partner, my friends that have stuck by me along the way, and everyone in my professional life that have taken a risk and given me that chance to work with them.
