A Biography on Amanda Nguyen

By Mikaila Rivas '26

Amanda Nguyen is a civil rights activist and astronaut who became the first

Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman to go to space. Conversely, her journey to the stars

was not as linear as it may seem. In 2013, during Nguyen’s last semester at Harvard University studying astrophysics, she was raped. In a video about her story, she shares, “I found out that the government could destroy my evidence, untested, at 6 months. I felt betrayed by the very system that was supposed to protect me.” Nguyen felt tied between two choices: her life’s dream to become an astronaut and fighting for justice. She courageously chose to pursue justice.

In 2014, she founded the nonprofit organization Rise that sought to rewrite and form laws  that protect the rights of sexual assault survivors. Two years later, the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights was passed unanimously by Congress, which would give survivors the right to preserve evidence and access their own case records, among other important protections. Nguyen later spoke at the United Nations, where they all collectively agreed to pass a resolution that would recognize survivor’s rights not only nationally, but globally. 

Nguyen was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, and was later named Time Magazine's Woman of the year. Since her many accomplishments, she has been a bioastronautics researcher at the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences, where she has been training for astronautical flight. After quite literally changing the world, Nguyen was finally able to escape its atmosphere on the Blue Origin space launch in 2025 with an all-female space crew.  

Nguyen’s story is a beautiful reminder of hope and how the dedicated work of one can expand to help others. In essence, she remarks in the digital platform FEMINIST, “I want all survivors to know that your dreams matter. That they can still come true.”

Photo Courtesy of elfcosmetics.com

Sources: thewcj.com, risenow.us, feminists.co

Edited By: Carolina Kondas '28, Catherine Polatidis '26 and Ms. Brilliant

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