The journey of efforts of Harvard University PhD, Ha Giang - CEO of the world's leading biotechnology company Vizgen, is the clearest proof of 'knowledge changes destiny', in the current context, many parents are concerned about educating their children.
Is it necessary to invest large-scale financial and material resources in children's development? Or how to create a good family education, helping children realize all their dreams? To answer these questions, Dr. Ha Giang said, she will share her own story.
Starting line does not determine success
I was born in 1988, in the poor mountainous area of Hunan (China), my family was not well off. My parents were farmers, with low education levels. Because my family was poor, I followed my parents to plant, harvest and weed early.
I graduated from an ordinary primary and secondary school in a rural area. At that time, the facilities of schools in mountainous areas were relatively poor. Because my family was poor, I often reused notebooks that I had written on and then erased them. In a mountainous village with scarce resources, extracurricular classes and extracurricular activities were unfamiliar to me.
I was the first child in my family to be admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China in 2005. For 4 years, I had the highest average score in the school. In 2009, I became the valedictorian of the Biotechnology major.
Because of my love for this field, after graduating from university, I chose to study abroad. In 2009, I was admitted to Harvard University to get my master's and doctoral degrees. In 2016, I became the first Chinese person to speak at Harvard University's graduation ceremony as the best student in my class.
After receiving my PhD, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia, a member of the American Academy of Sciences, to conduct research. Here, I studied artificial livers and early signs of cancer detection.
As a result of this research, I was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the US in 2018, in the Health and Medicine category. I also received the STAT Wunderkind Award for Biotech Rising Star in America.
To realize the transformation of scientific research results, in 2019, I founded the biotechnology company Vizgen in Boston (USA), specializing in developing new genetic research tools. In less than 3 years, my company completed many rounds of fundraising with a total amount of up to 132 million USD (3,321 billion VND) and launched the world's first single-cell spatial genomic tool.
Currently, Vizgen products are sold in more than 10 countries in Europe, America, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East. In 2023 alone, the company's revenue reached 250 million yuan (860 billion VND). I am proud that the company's technology is rated as a breakthrough by Nature magazine. Vizgen has also been listed in the top 10 biotechnology companies in the world many times.
It can be said that every step I took was a giant leap. From a poor boy in the mountains to an excellent PhD from Harvard University, then owning the world's leading biotechnology company.
After learning about my path to adulthood, many people are curious about how I broke through. What role did my parents play in my growing up? How did they plan my education? Is there any educational secret behind my success?
Looking back at my growing up, I realized that starting point is not the deciding factor for success. Even when the family's financial conditions and resources are still difficult. If we apply appropriate educational concepts and methods, we can still turn limitations into turning points in life.
Appropriate educational concepts and methods
Behind my success, the strict teachings of my parents are indispensable. Without their companionship and perseverance, perhaps I would have been like many of my childhood friends, having to go to work early without being able to study.
My parents carefully cultivated my living and studying habits, thinking ability, life perspective and personal qualities. These things have deeply influenced my growth process. Until now, I still maintain them and they are taking me further in the future.
In other words, the best educational strategy every family can adopt is to make a big difference by making a small difference. Let's eliminate internal conflicts to create a family educational foundation that benefits children.
Some people think that my success story is just an example. However, I do not think so, because my parents' educational methods and concepts also nurtured my younger brother's success. It is relatively rare for a mountainous family to have a highly educated child but no resources.
Without the appropriate education of my parents, my siblings and I would hardly have gone far. I am always grateful for the educational foundation of my family. It is my parents' teachings that have helped me to be who I am today. I realize that a person's success depends on many factors. In addition to luck, thinking, habits and working methods also determine a person's success or failure.
However, this view is not supported by many parents. They still believe that knowledge plays the most important role for children's success. This leads to the situation where parents force their children to study because they are afraid that they will fall behind.
I see the biggest problem of parents today, they care about their children but do not have the right education method. For me, good children are due to education, good habits are due to training, good achievements are due to effort and good parents are also due to learning.
Looking back on my growing up journey, due to lack of resources, I did not have many opportunities to access the best educational resources in the locality. However, thanks to practicing good study habits and lifestyle, I quickly caught up with future opportunities.
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