Ms. Nguyen, the current principal and founder of Encompass Academy in Oakland, California has been a tireless crusader for the educational access and rights of students at her school. EnCompass Academy is located in the isolated Elmhurst neighborhood of East Oakland, and serves almost 100 percent students of color and significantly higher percentages of English Language Learners and low-income students than other schools in the district. She was able to coordinate family and community members to form the Encompass Academy charter school, which seeks to offer a holistic education to children in the East Oakland area. East Oakland is a low-poverty area in which the public school funding is seriously challenged. It is not uncommon for students and schools to suffer from the lack of enough educational funding, etc. Ms. Nguyen has been amazing in respecting and coordinating her students, staff, faculty, and family to create an educational environment that is respective of a holistic balance through its unique "teaching to the whole child" vision. EnCompass Academy honors the mind, body, emotions, and spirit of the whole child.Their vision of an educated child is one with an active, reflective, and disciplined mind; a healthy and physically-fit body; a centered spirit; and just, caring, and courageous self-conduct. The program is developed around the EnCompass Life Spiral elements of: the cultivation of Self, the guidance and support of Family, the engagement with Communities, and the rootedness in Ancestors and ancestral heritage.They believe that all children are good and deserve guidance to make appropriate choices.The school honors and respect families' customs and seeks to teach students how critical thinking and living. Ms. Nguyen works around the clock and is a passionate leader for her community. Under Ms. Nguyen's leadership, for the third consecutive year, EnCompass Academy posted impressive achievement gains on the California Standards Test (CST). In EnCompass's inaugural year in 2004, three percent of its 2nd-graders (now in 5th grade) scored at proficient or advanced levels in English Language Arts (ELA). This number rose dramatically to 20 percent the next year, and 28 percent in 2007. In math, the trends have been similarly encouraging, with 54 percent at proficient or advanced this year, up from 30 percent just two years ago.