If you’ve called Moseley Center Front Desk at all this semester, you may have unknowingly spoken with Elon University’s own princess. Well, sort of.
Sophomore Linh Tonnu was born in the United States and lives in Mooresville, near Charlotte, but both of her parents were born and raised in Vietnam. Her great, great, great grandfather, in fact, was the last king to rule. If the country’s government were still a monarchy, Tonnu would be a Vietnamese princess.
Even though she’s not actually royalty, Tonnu said she and her family still get a little bit of special treatment when they visit relatives who still live in Ho Chi Minh City and Saigon. Once, during Tonnu’s first solo visit, customs agents gave her a hard time because she didn’t have the exact address of her destination, but once they saw her last name on her passport, they let her through.
“I definitely get different treatment,” she said. “They know who I am. My last name is very well known there.”
With multiple houses and exotic pets—including a giraffe and an elephant—dotting the life she visits in Vietnam every-other-year, it might sound a little Princess Diaries-esque. Especially since Tonnu said she rarely shares the details of her royal family tree, and her friends in high school didn’t believe her when she first told them.
“All these guys would be like, ‘Oh, well, you know how many girls say they’re princesses?’” she said. “No one would take me seriously.”
But unlike Princess Mia, who stumbled into the spotlight amid more media attention than she could handle, Tonnu’s every day life at Elon is filled with her public health and exercise science majors, her job at Moseley Center and her sisterhood in Alpha Xi Omega. She’s gotten some “awkward” questions lately since classmates saw an Elon Local News story about her ties to royalty, but she’s hardly bombarded by paparazzi.
“In the U.S. I’m not a big deal, but in Vietnam, I’m not a big deal, either,” she said.
Tonnu said she loves to visit Vietnam, but is grateful for the opportunity to get an education in the United States. She came to Elon after accepting a Watson-Odyssey scholarship and other, smaller, grants that completely pay for her tuition.
In her most recent visits, Tonnu has spent much of her time volunteering at a hospital. An aspiring doctor, she works with kids who suffer from birth defects caused by their parents’ exposure to Agent Orange, a vegetation-killing chemical used by the United States military during the Vietnam War to cause deforestation to revoke the hiding places of many guerillas. Tonnu is fluent in both English and Vietnamese and acts as a translator outside of assisting with field trips and hanging out with children who don’t have many visitors.
“It’s good, hands-on stuff,” she said. “The whole experience of being in the medical field is why I do it. It’s really fun, and it’s nice to be able to work with the doctor.”
Tonnu is on the pre-med track at Elon and said she would love to be a traveling doctor one day, such as those who go from country to country with organizations such as Operation Smile, which provides free surgery to children with cleft palates and other facial deformities.