Danny Nguyen grew up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district—notoriously nicknamed the city’s Skid Row. He is one of a few prostitutes that have escaped poverty and retired from prostitution to pursue elite higher education. But stories like his are not often told. He brings the lessons he has learned through experiencing poverty, homophobia, and prostitution to Vanderbilt University while studying Molecular and Cellular Biology and Medicine, Health, and Society. He is an aspiring journalist that writes about these topics in opinion editorials. They can be found in The Tennessean, The Wall Street Journal, The Frisc, and Inheritance Magazine, among others.