The power of constant effort
His father died early, so his mother worked alone to raise Nguyen Vu Linh. Seeing his mother work hard as a janitor during the day and a security guard at night, Linh always told herself to study hard.
Despite her difficult circumstances, Linh did not want to run away from life’s challenges. She found joy in learning and was always eager to explore new horizons of knowledge.
One day at the beginning of the year, her secondary school teacher gave Linh a flyer with information about the UNIS Hanoi Scholarship Program. Linh and her mother had no idea that this would be the key to opening the door to her future.
The prospect of receiving a scholarship to study at one of only two United Nations schools in the world with an international curriculum, diverse community and world-class facilities seemed like a dream. Linh didn’t believe she could do it, but her teacher saw her potential and encouraged her to apply.
With her application in hand, Linh took the bus to UNIS to submit her scholarship application. In her application, Linh showed that she was not only a student with good academic performance but also had many dreams, ambitions and her own personality. After going through a rigorous selection process, Linh’s perseverance was rewarded – a phone call from UNIS informing her of her admission, “You are the chosen one.”
Linh’s journey is a testament to the power of courage. When she entered a new learning environment entirely in English, she initially felt overwhelmed. The rigorous curriculum combined with the change in environment presented her with difficult challenges.
There were times when Linh doubted her ability to integrate and develop herself. “At first, I had a big ambition when I received the scholarship. That was to reduce the burden on my mother and find a new door for myself and my friends,” Linh shared, “but to maintain that dream, I need the love of the surrounding community as well as reminding myself to work hard every day.”
Linh sought advice, received support from friends and teachers at school, dared to face challenges in a new environment and then gradually, she found her voice at UNIS.
Journey to realize dreams
The curriculum at the international school, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, sparked Nguyen Vu Linh’s passion. Service Learning is more than just a classroom; it’s a call to action.
During her time in the program, Linh traveled to remote villages and visited schools in the highlands, applying her academic knowledge to solve real-world problems. This experience, along with the guidance of her teachers and the support of her close friends, helped her gradually form goals for her future, envisioning a future in which she could contribute to empowering others through education, especially women and children.
When researching and applying to universities around the world, Vanderbilt was one of the dream universities with a global acceptance rate of only 3%, which made Linh hesitate. However, Linh's 12th grade counselor believed in her abilities and encouraged and supported her to apply. Linh went on to receive a full scholarship to Vanderbilt and graduated with a dual degree.
Now back in Hanoi, Linh is a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme - UNDP Vietnam. She is working in the environment she has always dreamed of since her time at UNIS, gradually trying to narrow the gap between policy and development, helping to make an impact on the disadvantaged as UNIS has supported her.
Linh’s journey has not been a fairy tale. Starting from a public school, she received a scholarship to UNIS Hanoi, graduated from a prestigious university in the US and now works for a global development organization. Linh’s journey has been paved with hardships, doubts and moments of feeling lost in a multilingual and multicultural world. However, Linh has faced each challenge with the strength honed from her childhood and nurtured by the loving community she found at UNIS Hanoi.
“Hope is a fragile flame, easily extinguished by doubt in the journey of self-discovery, especially when you are still a child. But with daily care, it will light the way to lead us to new journeys, to extraordinary people from whom we can learn,” Linh shared.
The UNIS Hanoi Scholarship Program is now accepting applications for the 2024-2025 academic year. Website: https://www.unishanoi.org/community/scholars Email: [email protected] |
Tan Tai
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