A mint prize
By Amy Geiszler-Jones
 Tien Huynh holds two of the new state quarters being issued by the U.S. Mint. Huynh, a freshman in entrepreneurship and international business, won a recent nationwide contest, sponsored by the Mint and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, with his plan to market the new quarters. |
Nineteen-year-old Tien Huynh doesn’t consider himself a true coin collector. But like a lot of people, he has started collecting the new U.S. quarters featuring America’s 50 states.
And now the entrepreneurship and international business major has collected a $5,000 grand prize for his marketing plan for the U.S. Mint’s 50 State Quarters program. The U.S. Mint and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship sponsored the nationwide student competition.
When he developed the winning plan, Huynh says he took into account that Congress authorized the 50 State Quarters program to honor U.S. history and to encourage youth to start coin collecting.
His campaign, "Own a Piece of History," calls for teachers to develop lesson plans for second- through fifth-graders. The plans would teach students about the history, geography and heritage of each state, because of the unique depictions on each quarter.
The $1.4 million plan also calls for direct mail, billboards and public service announcements to raise awareness about the 50 State Quarters program.
The U.S. Mint began issuing the new quarters in 1999 and will release five new state quarters each year through 2008. The Mint already has a marketing plan for the 50 State Quarters program, but its acting director, John Mitchell, has said officials will review Huynh’s plan for additional ideas.
"It was one night of work," Huynh says, referring to the time he spent on the marketing plan, "but it was based on four to five years worth of education to get that knowledge."
Huynh says his success is an ultimate tribute to his parents because they made such a sacrifice, fleeing Vietnam in 1980. Huynh was born in Hong Kong, while the family was en route to the United States. His father is a machinist at Learjet. His mother died when he was a freshman in high school, from a stroke that resulted as a complication of a brain tumor.
That was a turning point for him, Huynh says. He became active in Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas and DECA, a marketing association for students, at Wichita Northwest High School, determined to learn what he could to become a success in business.
That drive continues as he nears the end of his freshman year at WSU. He’s president of the YEK ambassador’s group, which visits area schools to talk about the program and entrepreneurship. He’s also involved in the WSU chapter of Students in Free Enterprise, which recently earned a berth to SIFE’s international competition in May, based on its education programs. He splits his weekday afternoons between two jobs at an investment firm and a logistics firm.
Huynh plans to acknowledge the help he’s received from YEK, which is housed in WSU’s Devlin Hall, and DECA by giving the two groups some of his prize money. He plans to invest the rest.
