{"id":658009,"date":"2026-03-15T19:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T19:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/658009\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T19:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T19:19:15","slug":"52-faces-3-teachers-changed-tony-phams-life-now-hes-repaying-the-favor-through-junior-achievement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/658009\/","title":{"rendered":"52 Faces: 3 teachers changed Tony Pham\u2019s life. Now he\u2019s repaying the favor through Junior Achievement"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Report
March 15, 2026<\/p>\n

Tony Pham can readily identify the three teachers who redirected his life and inspired him to help other kids.<\/p>\n

Pham, 37, an architect and project coordinator for The Beck Group in Fort Worth, just completed weeks of pro bono work helping to design the setup of the Junior Achievement of the Chisholm Trail<\/a>\u2019s annual career expo that introduces careers to high schoolers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pham is active in the organization\u2019s young professionals group, appears at career fairs and recruits new volunteers to Junior Achievement, the global nonprofit that uses lessons on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship to stress the importance of education and training after high school.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTony is definitely a JA unsung hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cindy Hames, president, Junior Achievement of the Chisholm Trail<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Welcome to 52 Faces<\/strong>
\n\"52<\/p>\n

52 Faces of Community<\/a> is a Fort Worth Report weekly series spotlighting local unsung heroes. It is sponsored by Central Market<\/a>, H-E-B<\/a> and JPS Health Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of the year, these rarely recognized heroes will gather for a luncheon where the Report will announce one honoree to represent Tarrant County at the Jefferson Awards in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Know an unsung hero in Tarrant County?<\/p>\n

Tell us about them by filling out the form below. <\/p>\n

Pham\u2019s parents, Vietnamese refugees who fled the war-ravaged country in the late 1970s, resettled in New Orleans before moving to Michigan and, finally, East Texas. They built small businesses and worked various jobs to make ends meet for their nine children, Pham says. Teachers filled critical gaps, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving (mentorship of) an adult was so important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pham\u2019s volunteer work for Junior Achievement earned him recognition in 52 Faces of Community<\/a>, Fort Worth Report\u2019s weekly series on unsung heroes making a difference in Tarrant County.<\/p>\n

Pham visits classrooms to talk about construction careers, developing an incentive system to get kids to participate. The students cash in their bonuses for prizes he provides. He joined Beck colleagues in working pro bono in preparing for the JA Inspire career expo that was in early March<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to exhibiting and engaging students throughout the day, they recruited other companies from their industry to build out the construction zone, in addition to serving on the committee that planned the event over the last nine months,\u201d Cindy Hames, president of Junior Achievement, said. \u201cTony is definitely a JA unsung hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pham credits a middle school teacher in Michigan with making a big difference in his life as he was learning English as a second language.<\/p>\n

His reading level bumped up significantly after one school year with the teacher, says Pham, who was born in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the one thing that changed everything, what gave me confidence to believe in myself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The experience helped him master math and science and become interested in history, he said. \u201cShe exposed me to books and literature and fantasy, just dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

In high school, a computer-aided design teacher in Michigan caught Pham\u2019s attention as he considered automotive design and engineering as a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saw something in me and called it out and continued to give support, spending out of his own pocket to invest in materials we needed,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then we entered state and national competitions for our renderings.\u201d<\/p>\n

His parents subsequently bought a chicken farm in East Texas and moved the family. Pham enrolled at Tyler Junior College, where an instructor discovered Pham\u2019s interest in architecture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She gave him a book at the end of a semester about the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. \u201cShe made an effort to get to know me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The teacher also had a strong faith that he didn\u2019t understand at the time, but figured out later when he developed his own relationship with God, Pham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back now, connecting the dots, she was a Christian, a believer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Along his career path, Pham looked for ways to \u201cput myself out there\u201d and deepen his social skills, ranging from waiting tables while attending school to his work for Junior Achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it because we teach everything you need to know about the community \u2014 (from) voting, about (personal finance), how the economy works, how the community can help serve the communities of the neighborhoods, and just having the flexibility to be creative in the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Scott Nishimura is a senior editor at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.\u00a0News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/03\/15\/52-faces-3-teachers-changed-tony-phams-life-now-hes-repaying-the-favor-through-junior-achievement\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n

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