Vo Hong Nhat was overwhelmed when he won three full government scholarships for a master's degree in one year, from Italy, Belgium and New Zealand.
Vo Hong Nhat, 25 years old, from Quang Binh, went to New Zealand at the end of January to study for a master's degree in Development Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, under the Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship from the government of this country.
Nhat said the scholarship is worth about 2.7 billion VND for more than two years of study, including all tuition, living and travel expenses. In the middle of last year, Nhat also won two other government scholarships: Invest your talent in Italy from Italy and VLIR-UOS Scholarship from Belgium.
"I never thought I would win three government scholarships, and I never thought I would dare to refuse the first two scholarships to wait for good news from New Zealand. It was a long and difficult journey," Nhat shared.
Vo Hong Nhat. Photo: Character provided
Nhat is a former student of the National Economics University, graduated valedictorian of the school's Planning major in 2021 with a grade point average (GPA) of 3.75/4.
His family, especially his parents, all wanted Nhat to have a stable job in a government agency. However, because he had planned to study abroad when he was still a student, Nhat had no intention of returning home to work.
Because of Covid-19, after graduating, Nhat temporarily put his dream of studying abroad on hold to work for a non-governmental organization whose main mission is to support improving financial knowledge for people in the northern mountainous region. There, Nhat met some experts who had studied abroad. Impressed by their sharing, Nhat decided to apply for a scholarship to study abroad for a master's degree.
Nhat shared his plan with his family but was not supported because no one had ever thought of "study abroad scholarships". The young man quietly quit his job to focus on applying for scholarships.
"This was an extremely stressful period. While my friends had already settled down in their jobs or were about to finish their master's degrees, I was just starting to look for opportunities," Nhat said. "Not to mention, I had to manage to live on the small savings I had saved for about a year of working before that."
Nhat started by searching online. His target was full scholarships for Development Studies. Then, Nhat created an Excel spreadsheet of the deadlines and application requirements for each scholarship, comparing them to see which criteria he had and had not met, for easy tracking.
Scholarships have different requirements but revolve around three main parts: CV (resume), motivation letter and recommendation letter, according to Nhat.
Regarding his CV, Nhat is confident that some of his former scholarship winners have assessed his achievements as quite strong, such as GPA 3.75/4, IELTS 7.0, winning the Student Scientific Research Encouragement Award, co-authoring two articles published in prestigious journals of ISI and ACI, and 4 articles participating in domestic and international conferences. Nhat also had many teachers at the university write letters of recommendation.
As for the motivation letter, each scholarship has different regulations, so Nhat spent the most time on this part. For example, with the Italian government scholarship, Nhat had to make a one-minute video. The Belgian scholarship required an essay of about 1,000 words, while the New Zealand scholarship asked for 15 questions.
With careful preparation, Nhat applied for 5 scholarships. However, he failed the application round for the first scholarship and the interview round for the second one.
"At that time, I doubted myself a lot," Nhat said.
Relatives seeing Nhat off to study abroad, late January. Photo: Character provided
While feeling confused, Nhat shared with Mr. Nguyen Van Dai, lecturer of the Department of Planning and Development, National Economics University, who guided Nhat in his thesis and wrote a letter of recommendation.
Having won an Australian government scholarship, Mr. Dai reassured Nhat that getting a scholarship required luck. He advised his students not to get too depressed but to focus on improving their knowledge and English to make their application stronger.
The teacher's encouragement helped Nhat regain his motivation and return to support the research project led by the teacher, like in his last two years of university.
Two months later, in June 2023, Nhat received notice of acceptance for a scholarship from Italy and soon after that from Belgium. With these scholarships, Nhat had to decide whether to accept or reject them immediately.
"I was very hesitant because the most desired scholarship was from New Zealand and the results would not be available until October. But after consulting everyone and reviewing my application, I refused to wait for news from New Zealand," Nhat said.
New Zealand scholarships also require the most, from submitting documents, IQ tests, and interviews. In October, when Nhat received the scholarship notification, he still couldn't celebrate right away because he had to resubmit his CV and motivation letter to Victoria University of Wellington. Only when the school accepted him, would the scholarship take effect.
In his motivation letter, Nhat explained his reasons for participating in the research and his stories about working during his university years. From there, Nhat shared his shortcomings and expressed his desire to study for a master’s degree abroad. Nhat also included what he had learned about the school, saying that the school’s curriculum would help him fill in his shortcomings.
Nhat was overwhelmed when he was accepted, even happier after a long time of persuasion, with three scholarships won, his parents supported him.
Japan and Vietnamese candidates won the Manaaki New Zealand Scholarship 2023. Photo: Provided by the character
Teacher Nguyen Van Dai assessed that Nhat's results were worthy because his students had made efforts to achieve equal results in both studying and research.
"Nhat is modest, serious, meticulous and inquisitive in all his work, always closely following and asking the teacher regularly to make appropriate adjustments," said Mr. Dai. "I am also impressed with his ability to learn quickly. Almost everything that needs only one instruction, Nhat can do right away."
In New Zealand, Nhat plans to spend the first year focusing on studying his major and improving his foreign language skills. Once he gets used to it, Nhat will spend time traveling around New Zealand before returning to Vietnam to work, as committed when receiving the scholarship.
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