The secret to helping Vietnamese female students win full scholarships from the British Government

(Dan Tri) - Luong Thu Giang is one of the few Vietnamese people to receive the prestigious Chevening scholarship from the British Government. She is studying for a Master's degree in Educational Management at the University of Cambridge (UK).

Chevening is a global scholarship program of the British government, chaired by the Department for Foreign Affairs and Development. This scholarship has been awarded since 1983, and is one of the most valuable and prestigious government scholarships for international students. Thu Giang is one of the outstanding candidates who won this scholarship. Confident thanks to IELTS 8.5 and extensive work experience Previously, Thu Giang studied at the University of Buckingham (UK) and graduated with a bachelor's degree with honors in English Literature. Notably, the 27-year-old girl achieved an IELTS score of 8.5 on her first attempt at the exam at the age of 18. When she first came to the UK, the lucky thing for Thu Giang was that her difficulties did not come from communication. Since childhood, studying was quite easy for her because she loved watching movies in English. "Learning English will become very difficult if we do not have the habit of reading and listening to English regularly in daily life," Thu Giang said.

Thu Giang met the British Ambassador to Vietnam before departing to study abroad (Photo: NVCC).

In addition, Thu Giang also has extensive experience in teaching foreign languages. She has taught English to students from many countries at International House London (London International School, UK). Giang has also participated in cooperation projects with the Vietnamese Government such as: Project 165 Office, teaching English to military doctors participating in the United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan... She has also been a guest lecturer at the English Department of the Diplomatic Academy. In particular, she is also a senior teacher at a leading English center in Vietnam, holding a postgraduate certificate in teaching advanced English, granted by Cambridge, equivalent to a master's degree on the National Competency Framework in the UK. Recently, Thu Giang received a full Chevening scholarship from the British Government, studying for a master's degree in Educational Leadership & Improvement at the University of Cambridge, the school ranked 1st in the UK and 2nd worldwide. Conquer the interview board with a convincing essay Thu Giang started preparing her application in September 2022. Due to her busy work schedule, she only had one month to complete the necessary procedures and documents. After applying to Cambridge University, Giang received the results of the Chevening scholarship application round. The time from knowing that she passed the application round to the interview day was about 2 weeks. Due to limited time, Giang only had 2 days to prepare for the interview. For those who intend to apply, Giang advises you to prepare carefully but not too early, because when you prepare too early, candidates will feel like they have memorized the answers. Normally, the judges in the interview board will only ask questions revolving around the essay and some situational questions. We just need to pay attention to reviewing the essay we have written so as not to forget the main ideas and important ideas. According to Thu Giang, the most important thing in an interview is consistency in what you have done, your work experience, what you write in your essay and your future plans. "I think the factor that helped me get the scholarship was that I clearly understood what I wanted to achieve to contribute to education in Vietnam. The Chevening Scholarship pays close attention to leadership, the ability to create relationships, understanding what you want to achieve in the future and the learning path that students want when studying in the UK. Those four things will be the four corresponding topics for the four essays that I will submit. All of my experiences are in the field of education, those experiences also clearly show what I have done to achieve my wishes at the present time, and how I will continue that in the future," Thu Giang said.

Thu Giang went to England to study under a scholarship from the host government (Photo: NVCC).

In the first essay, Giang presented the issue of what a good leader is, and at the same time, gave 2 arguments to prove that she has all those factors when becoming a senior teacher at an English center, she has a lot of experience in management. In the second essay on the ability to build and connect relationships, Thu Giang wrote about the principles of building relationships, with 3 main arguments: creating relationships at work, outside the work place and attitude in building relationships. Thu Giang's studies next year are shared in the third essay. She gave 3 reasons for choosing the 3 schools and courses she wanted. Because she had determined Cambridge as her top choice from the beginning, Thu Giang explained why she was qualified to study here, what was special about the course she chose and how respectable the lecturers here were. She also spent a short paragraph writing about her choice of the two remaining schools. In the final essay, Thu Giang talked about her plans when returning to Vietnam with 3 time frames: short term, long term and further future, about the position and job she wanted to do to contribute to Vietnamese education as well as the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and the UK in the field of education. The fear of early success became a big motivation for applying to Cambridge University . Since secondary school, Thu Giang has studied in a fairly competitive environment. This will cause both advantages and disadvantages when making her compare herself with everyone around her and affect her psychology when her spirit is not yet stable. But when she gets used to that school and is surrounded by good people, it will be a great source of motivation for Giang to try and have a network of quality relationships. For Thu Giang, much of her success is due to her relationships, when close friends advised and helped Thu Giang apply for scholarships and complete her application. "Before, I also thought about whether I was succeeding too soon or not. Because I was quite lucky to have worked hard to get an IELTS score of 8.5 from a young age. After that, I studied abroad in the UK and graduated with honors. When I started working, I also got a job with a relatively good salary and I was only 22 years old. This made me wonder whether I was succeeding too soon, stagnating and going in a straight line or not. This was also a big motivation for me to continue to strive and try to achieve higher milestones in my career, as well as to receive Chevening and Cambridge scholarships," Thu Giang shared.

The worry about whether he was succeeding too soon was the big motivation that pushed Giang to go to his dream school (Photo: NVCC).

Before officially starting to study at her dream school, Thu Giang was also quite worried about whether she was good enough or not. But then, Giang realized that worrying about things that have not happened yet does not bring much positivity to her studies: "I always try to think that I will do it. Instead of worrying and thinking too much about things that may not happen, I spend my energy thinking more positively, trying harder on what I am doing now to achieve success". Missing Vietnamese food the most when living far away Giang shared that the thing she regrets most about not having done in Vietnam is enjoying more Vietnamese food. When she came to England, although there were still places selling Vietnamese food, the taste was very difficult to be the same and delicious as when she was at home, so she always felt quite homesick for Vietnamese food when studying abroad. When she came to a new country, the young girl was a bit bewildered by some differences in England compared to Vietnam. For example, the transportation system here is very different from our country. In addition, the weather in England is quite harsh, much colder than in Vietnam, and in England schools and public places do not have air conditioning. But people in England are extremely friendly, willing to help foreigners when they come here. When they first arrived, a local person helped Thu Giang a lot by helping her pull two very large and heavy suitcases to the pier. According to Thu Giang, she feels that the city of Cambridge where she lives is quite special because of the harmonious combination of ancient and modern. Cambridge has a river running through it, so there is a unique boating activity here. Most of the tourist attractions in the city are on the campus of Cambridge University, such as Newton's apple tree... That is also one of the things Giang loves about this city.

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