Lincoln High student is one of the first in her family to attend college

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Another graduating class is in the books for Lincoln Public Schools. On Saturday, family and friends cheered on their loved ones as they prepared to take the next step.

When Kristie Trinh’s parents came to the U.S. from Vietnam, the education they had didn’t transfer over. She said her dad ended up going to a community college but never got a four-year degree. This drove Kristie and her sister, who just graduated from UNL, to pursue that four-year degree after high school. This made walking across the stage on Saturday extra special.

“I think everything I’ve done in the past few years, the classes I’ve taken, the extracurriculars, it’s led up to this point,” Kristie said. “I don’t know.. I’m really proud.”

All throughout this journey, Kristie thanked her sister and called her an inspiration as she was the first to take this step.

“I kind of want to just follow in her footsteps and make my parents proud,” Kristie said.

Throughout Kristie’s high school career she wore a lot of hats. She was a Nebraska Youth Senator, a part of debate for her school and the president of the National Honors Society. Just like a lot of high school graduates, she’s taking an important piece of advice with her from a teacher who was a mentor to her throughout school.

“‘Live the story you want to retell,’” Kristie said. “I think that was really inspiring. It made me take a different approach to life.”

Kristie will be attending the University of Michigan in the fall. She is dual enrolling in architecture and urban planning and the College of Engineering. More than 500 students graduated from Lincoln High on Saturday. Northeast High School and Southwest High School will graduate on Sunday.

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