Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2019

21 SOUTHWESTERN Kelly Parmet ’09 | Bellaire, TX Parmet majored in kinesiology because she had always wanted to work in the healthcare field and was interested in a focus on rehabilitation and helping others. Today, she serves as her hospital system’s clinical fieldwork coordinator and senior occupational therapy assistant. Parmet has garnered a number of awards for her efforts, including the Harris Health System Occupational Therapist of the Year in 2014. She shares that “Coach Francie Larrieu Smith was a wonderful mentor. … A world-renowned distance runner, she demonstrated to her students and athletes the importance of achieving that same level of excellence inside and outside the classroom. She also showed the importance of being a lifelong learner.” Shortly after his first year at Southwestern, Nanavati started his training for the Marine Reserves and was deployed to Iraq following his junior year. After returning home, he decided to use his experiences, history major, and philosophy minor to pursue a humanitarian career. Since then, he has quit a corporate job to build a global business, run ultramarathons, and explored some of the most hostile environments on the planet. He is the author of Fearvana: The Revolutionary Science of How to Turn Fear into Health, Wealth, and Happiness and the founder of the nonprofit Fearvana Foundation. Nanavati says his philosophy and history courses at SU “ stand out ” because his studies “live with me to this day and still apply to the work I now do.” Akshay Nanavati ’09 | Basking Ridge, NJ Marcela Berdion-Straub ’05 | Houston, TX Born in Austin to parents from Spain and Mexico, Berdion-Straub majored in business and political science. She earned her J.D. at Southern Methodist University and served for nine years as an in-house litigation and trial attorney for Andrews Kurth Kenyon, LLP. She is currently lead counsel at TEP Barnett USA, LLC, an affiliate of Total, the fourth largest oil and gas company in the world. She says that she “fell in love” with Southwestern’s beautiful campus, liberal-arts focus, and small, personal environment. “Studying abroad my junior year in Salamanca, Spain, was one of the most impactful experiences of my life,” she adds. “It helped me connect more deeply with my culture and was likely another piece of the puzzle that led me where I am today.” A computer science and music double major, Nguyen is a patent attorney in Silicon Valley who has spent nearly a decade practicing intellectual property law. He is also a successful community organizer, advocate, fundraiser, and drag entertainer, chairing the board of directors of the nonprofit Gay Asian Pacific Alliance and serving on the board of directors for Livable City, an organization dedicated to providing accessible, affordable, and plentiful housing and public transportation. He traces his various advocacy roles to an ethics class, a leadership conference, and an internship he engaged in while at SU: “Before, I was a mere spectator, but because of those three experiences, I am no longer on the sidelines and am dedicated to correcting social injustices I see in the world.” Michael T. Nguyen ’03 | San Francisco, CA A communication studies major and political science minor, Rose is currently the senior learning and development consultant at Texas Christian University. After graduating from Southwestern, she earned an interdisciplinary master’s degree from New York University in African-American cultural studies and cinema and media studies. She serves her community as vice president of the Tarrant Literacy Coalition and as the mayoral appointee for the Community Development Board in Fort Worth. As a first-generation college student, “Southwestern taught me possibility,” reflects Rose. “ My story would not be what it is had it not been for the moments I learned what was truly possible thanks to the experiences I had at Southwestern.” Ebony Rose ’02 | Fort Worth, TX