A FEW WORDS ABOUT MLV-2011

Bishop Phao lô Nguyễn Thái Hợp, O.P signs the open letter

The Our Lady of La Vang Scholarship, first known as the Chắp Cánh Ước Mơ Scholarship, grew out of the fund supporting Catholic students of the Diocese of Vinh in Đà Nẵng. To date, the Scholarship has walked alongside pupils and students for twelve years. Casting our minds back to 2010, the provinces of the Central region were struck by floods of "historic" scale. The people of the Central region withstood this disaster with great resilience; among them were some who had already been in especially difficult circumstances, and who now found hardship on every side. Faced with such a natural disaster, the executive committee of the Catholic students of the Diocese of Vinh in Đà Nẵng, with the approval of Bishop Giuse Châu Ngọc Tri, set up a fund to support students harmed by the floods. The effort ran for three months, raising money to help students in difficulty. The sum was modest: the fund raised nearly 60.000.000 VNĐ, which supported some 40 students with their study and living costs over three months. After that event, encouraged by Bishop Giuse, the student Trần Quân and a group of students of the Diocese of Vinh in Đà Nẵng had the idea of building a scholarship to help pupils and students in especially difficult circumstances.

After nearly a year of nurturing the idea and learning, on 16 January 2011 the Chắp Cánh Ước Mơ Scholarship was launched and began its work, greeted and witnessed by more than 60 Catholic students of the Diocese of Vinh in Đà Nẵng belonging to the Chính Tòa Catholic student group, at their end-of-year review. At the launch, the fund awarded 5 honorary scholarships (150.000 VNĐ each, with no ongoing support and awarded once only) to 5 students with good or excellent academic results. Awarding these scholarships set out a definite direction for the scholarship: to seek out, nurture and support pupils and students who are good, very good or excellent, but who are in difficult circumstances, so that they can continue to study and to do research.

On 14 February 2011, at the Xã Đoài Bishop's House, after hearing the head of the student executive committee, Trần Quân, present the idea and the future direction of the scholarship, Bishop Phao lô Nguyễn Thái Hợp, O.P signed the open letter and gave his support in the form of the first 10 scholarships (1.000.000 VNĐ each), together with gifts of the spirit and words of encouragement: "May our benefactors support this commendable initiative". His support gave the scholarship the strength to take its first steps.

On 16 January 2015 the Chắp Cánh Ước Mơ Scholarship was officially renamed the Our Lady of La Vang Scholarship, out of a desire to place the scholarship under Our Lady of La Vang's patronage. The scholarship wished to choose Our Lady as its Patroness, so that through her the members might be joined together and meet one another, and that entrusting themselves to her might lead to action. As a kind of promise, each day the members say together one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be… and Our Lady has stood in their midst, joining together the concerns, the hopes and the eager commitment of many people for a better future.