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A 17 year old Vietnamese girl is heading to
Harvard University
While most others her age are finishing high school, 17-year-old Alexandria Huynh—the youngest graduating senior in the Class of 2010 at Cal State L.A.—is heading to Harvard University this fall to pursue a Ph.D. inimmunology.
Admitted to Harvard Medical School with full funding and an additional stipend, she was also accepted to doctoral programs at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Through the University’s Early Entrance Program (EEP), Huynh was admitted to Cal State L.A. at the age of 13. Huynh received her bachelor’s degree in biology with honors. She hopes to pursue a career in biomedical research with clinical applications.
As part of Edith Porter’s research team at Cal State L.A., Huynh focused on how intestinal cells in mice respond to Salmonella enteric serovar Typhimurium, a bacterium that is a leading cause of gastroenteritis in humans.
Recognizing Porter for her dedication, Huynh said, “She puts in an almost ridiculous amount of time in mentoring students, both in classes and in the lab. She provided solid support and guidance as a research mentor, and helped me learn how to be more critical of myself and my work.”
A Torrance resident, Huynh was also a member of the Golden Key Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society at Cal State L.A. Recipient of the Kinecta Federal Credit Union Scholarship, she was recently named the winner of Cal State L.A.’s Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Senior Award and presented the Early Entrance Program Graduate of the Year scholarship. In addition, she has volunteered at the Torrance Memorial Medical Center. When time allows, she also enjoys figure skating and playing the piano.
Huynh said, “EEP provided a strong infrastructure and support system for us. We were able to talk to older students who had been through the same experiences as we were going through, as well as alumni with different perspectives.”
Cal State L.A.’s EEP admits extraordinarily gifted youngsters—some as young as 11—directly into college, providing the early entrants with monitored evaluation, regular counseling sessions, and the opportunity to study with like-minded peers. Huynh is among more than 20 other EEP graduates receiving their baccalaureate degrees this year.
Source: Saigon Echo
(http://saigonecho.us/index.php/viet-community/success/109-a-17-year-old-vietnamese-girl-is-heading-to-harvard-university)
Vietnamese girl qualifies for six US prestigious universities
Vietnamese students Ho Ngoc Nhi has won great admiration for passing the entrance exams of six prestigious US universities known as Yale, MIT, Harvard, Brown, UCLA, and UC Berkeley.
Nhi’s outstanding record was acknowledged by Santa Monica High School’s newspaper in June 2012. She is studying biomedicine at Harvard University because it is located near her residence in Boston from where she can easily get to biomedical engineering research institutes.
Her favourite subject is biology, she says. Since her family moved to the US in 2002, she has managed to enter the 2011 USA Biology Olympiad as one of the top 20 candidates. She also participated in a number of training courses abroad to broaden her knowledge and promote cultural exchanges.
Nhi is very active in charity work to help the poor, particularly underprivileged children. She is now head of a charity organization in support for African children.
Nhi’s studying at Harvard University is the pride and joy of her family and friends. “I have owed my academic record to the full support of my family members, teachers, and friends,” she says.
The land of Vietnam remains so dear to her heart that she has grasped every opportunity to visit her relatives back home, apart from attending her elder sister’s wedding.
Nhi says there are some 100 Vietnamese studying at Harvard University. They are proud of the homeland and its traditional culture and customs. “Tertiary education at Harvard University requires studiousness and diligence,” she says, “I will spare no effort in study as there’s a long way to go before becoming a doctor of pediatrics as I wish.”
Source: VOV
(http://english.vov.vn/Overseas-Vietnamese/Vietnamese-girl-qualifies-for-six-US-prestigious-universities/252654.vov)
How a Vietnamese babysitter
became an award-winning student
More than a decade ago Dang Thi Huong first came to Hanoi, some 40km from her hometown, Vinh Phuc Province, to work as a babysitter to help support her poor family and continue nurturing her dream of becoming a teacher.
Huong, 27, has proved that “where there’s a will, there’s a way” by winning two awards presented to international students in recognition of their outstandingcontribution to the Australian state of Victoria earlier this month.
She was named ‘Victorian International Student of the Year’ by Governor of Victoria Alex Chernov and also received the ‘Premier’s Award – International Student of the Year’ from Premier of Victoria Dr Denis Napthine on November 11.
Huong will receive a AU$20,000 (US$18,250) scholarship for studying at a Victorian educational institution.
She is now enrolled in an associate degree of commerce program at Box Hill Institute, a leading Victorian vocational and higher education provider, after earning a diploma in business management from the school.
In 1998, one of Huong’s teachers asked her what she wanted to do then and what she would like to do in the future. Huong answered she had only one dream: to become a literature teacher.
When the seventh grader told her mom about the conversation, she realized from her mother’s sad reaction that her dream wasn’t likely to come true because of their poverty.
She had to stop her education and put aside her dream after finishing seventh grade, when her mother was suffering from a kidney infection.
“I felt like it was the end of the world,” Huong said on Box Hill Institute’s website.
At the age of 13 Huong decided to come to Hanoi, hoping she could earn some money to support her mother and siblings’ education.
Her first job in the capital city was as a live-in nanny for a four-month old baby, for which she earned a monthly salary of VND150,000 ($7), all of which was sent to her mother.
She still wanted to realize her dream of teaching, so she enrolled in evening classes at a local continuing education center.
“I knew that I needed further education to seek a better life as, in my mind, I still really wanted to make my dream of becoming a teacher come true,” Huong said.
Her host did not agree with Huong’s decision to pursue further education at night, so she fired the girl as soon after she started the evening courses.
But Huong knew that she was not allowed to give up since her mother was ill and her two siblings depended on her for their education.
“My mom became very sick after so many years of hard work. My brother was in college, my sister was in secondary school and they were all depending on me for support. I couldn’t give up,” she recalled.
Luckily, she met a classmate who suggested she apply for a job at KOTO, an Australian-Vietnamese charity that provides hospitality training to underprivileged youth in Vietnam.
She was accepted as a KOTO Front of House Trainee in 2006, which she said was “a big step” that “brought a remarkable change in my life.”
The girl tried her utmost to both graduate from high school and complete her courses at KOTO, where she later got a good job with a decent salary.
In 2012, Huong embarked on a new journey with Box Hill Institute, where she won the two awards.
She was elected as an international student ambassador of the school thanks to her excellent academic performance.
Huong will use the scholarship, she said, to study for a bachelor of business entrepreneurship at RMIT Melbourne before forging ahead with her new dream.
“I want to study social enterprise start-ups and come up with solutions to problems related to underprivileged children,” Huong revealed.
Source: Vietnam Breaking News
(http://www.vietnambreakingnews.com/2013/11/how-a-vietnamese-babysitter-became-an-award-winning-student/)
