During this year’s US university admissions season, Nguyen Quynh Anh, a student at Concordia International School Hanoi, has been continuously accepted to prestigious schools such as Stanford University (top 2 in the world), Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania (top 1 in the US for Business), University of California, Los Angeles (top 18 in the world)… At these schools, the Nghe An native aims to pursue majors related to economics and finance. Quynh Anh said that before finding her passion, she had to “try many roles and participate in many fields” to know what was suitable.

Nguyen Quynh Anh has just been admitted to Stanford University.

Born in Vinh city (Nghe An), Quynh Anh followed her parents to Hanoi to live since grade 3. At that time, she was sent to study at an international inter-level school. For Quynh Anh, this was a huge challenge because the friends around her all studied and talked to each other entirely in English. The language barrier caused her, who had a fairly good academic record, to fall behind in the first semester. "Not understanding what my friends and teachers were saying, I felt very lost and had difficulty integrating," Quynh Anh recalled. With her parents by her side, during that period, while studying at school, Quynh Anh also registered for many extra classes from 6am to 9pm. She had almost no breaks to focus on catching up with her classmates. Continuously for a semester, the female student's performance began to improve. Thanks to that, Quynh Anh gradually regained her confidence. By grade 9, Quynh Anh began to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities with the goal of discovering her strengths. “I participated in many different activities to find my strengths. From my memory, judgment, communication skills and personal stance, I realized that I had a passion for economics,” Quynh Anh said. In grade 11, she put aside some of her side interests and focused her time on activities related to the field of study she wanted to pursue. “Economic Witch” was the first project she participated in as project president. Quynh Anh and more than 30 members organized activities to share knowledge about business and economics to nearly 3,000 high school students in Hanoi. In particular, the group organized 3 online seminars with the participation of a number of representatives of banks and social enterprises to talk about issues related to finance and macroeconomics. In addition, a number of seminars sharing experiences and job opportunities in the financial industry organized by the group also had the participation of international speakers who are also working in this field. Quynh Anh said that the motivation for the group to carry out a series of these activities was because in the general education program in Vietnam, students do not have many opportunities to access subjects related to business, economics, and finance. Therefore, the female student's wish is to connect and share knowledge with other students who share the same passion through the project. In addition to this activity, Quynh Anh is also the co-founder and leader of the "Women in Business" project. Within 2 years, the project has reached about 3,000 women, supporting them with technology in business such as how to use Excel, applying AI to shorten work processing time, etc. In 11th grade, Quynh Anh also started focusing on standardized tests and essay writing. In 2 years, the female student achieved perfect scores in many AP subjects (advanced placement programs with knowledge equivalent to the first year of university) such as Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Probability and Statistics, Calculus, World History... In addition, Quynh Anh's average score was also A+ throughout her high school years. Quynh Anh also included the journey of changing herself and constantly striving in her essay. From the first difficulties when moving from Vinh (Nghe An) to Hanoi to study, she turned that "shock" into a driving force to develop and rise strongly. Gradually, she regained her confidence and began her journey to find what she wanted. According to Quynh Anh, the essay was written from the most genuine things and also the emotions she had gone through, so everything spoke the most accurately about who she was. “Finally, I wrote about my desire to pursue a career in business and to be able to carry out activities related to promoting equality in business.” Having gone through more than 30 drafts before finishing her essay, Quynh Anh believes that the biggest lesson she learned from writing her essay is to start writing as soon as possible, and to spend time researching the school she wants to apply to to find out what kind of candidate they are looking for. This not only helps candidates express that spirit in their essays but also helps them prepare better for future interviews. Despite receiving a series of invitations from American universities, Quynh Anh plans to enroll at Stanford University next August. The major she wants to pursue is Finance. Quynh Anh hopes to become an expert in financial data analysis for social enterprises in the future.

Vietnamnet.vn

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