For decades, Sr. Sen Nguyen has turned a fractured refugee journey into a Denver life rooted in faith, art, and service. Now 70, the Sisters of St. Francis member is preparing to step back from the nonprofit she founded while returning to the studio and possibly making one more work about the mother she once feared was dead. It is a quieter next chapter, but hardly a small one.
Nguyen lives in Denver and remains a member of the Sisters of St. Francis at Marycrest. A recent Colorado Public Radio profile reports that she plans to leave Bridging Hope by the end of 2026 and return to her art studio, while the nonprofit continues funding projects for underserved people in Vietnam.
Her Denver story also came full circle this spring. Regis University selected Nguyen as an honorary doctorate recipient and undergraduate commencement speaker after she graduated from the school in 1989 and later founded Bridging Hope in 2007.
From Saigon To A Denver Reunion
Nguyen was a teenager in Vietnam when war separated her from Tin, her mother, and the only other member of her immediate family. She became stranded in Saigon after a bridge was bombed while she was seeking food and supplies, and for years she believed her mother had died.
According to the Colorado Public Radio account, Nguyen tried to escape Vietnam 15 times before finally leaving on a small boat with about 30 other people. The trip to Malaysia took roughly eight days, a comparatively fortunate journey in an era when other refugee boats could remain at sea for weeks or months and face pirate attacks, killings, and sexual violence.
Nguyen eventually reached the United States and Denver, where she reunited with Tin at an airport on July 11, 1978. An earlier National Catholic Reporter profile described that reunion as the beginning of a life that would connect Colorado with Vietnamese communities and people in need overseas.
Faith, Art And A Bridge Back To Vietnam
Nguyen later entered religious life, became an artist, and built a career around service. A ministry biography from the Sisters of St. Francis notes that she joined the order in 1983 and developed Bridging Hope into a vehicle for helping underserved women and children in Vietnam.
She has returned to Vietnam numerous times, most recently in March, while continuing to live and work in Denver. Her story is not simply about surviving a war or crossing an ocean, it is about repeatedly finding a way to turn separation into connection, whether through religious life, nonprofit work or art.
Now Nguyen says she wants to slow down somewhat. Her next project may be an exhibition focused on Tin, whose name means faith in Vietnamese—a fitting subject for the letter that helped bring her home and the life that followed.
