A Few Small Confidences

First of all, I would like to thank the Scholarship Fund for giving us, the applicants under review, the chance to say a few words about ourselves and about our dreams and aspirations.

I am the youngest child in my family. My parents are both close to fifty now, and my older brother has only just graduated and is still looking for work, so almost the entire financial burden of the family still rests on my parents. That is why I have always been determined to study and work hard, so that both now and in the years ahead I can ease some of their hardship.

Although I am a girl, I left home early for my studies. At the end of ninth grade I applied and was admitted to the mathematics class at Phan Bội Châu High School for the Gifted, in the city of Vinh, Nghệ An Province. Moving more than a hundred kilometres from home to begin living on my own is surely not easy for anyone, least of all for a girl like me. At times I felt sad and discouraged and wanted to go back home to study, but my parents and my brother gave me a great deal of encouragement. Then the first year passed, and I had grown used to the life there and settled in well. The three years of high school slipped by, and I sat the university entrance examination. After weighing up and applying for several different choices, I settled on Finance and Banking at the National Economics University as the harbour for my student years. And when the admissions round was over, I had officially been given the place I wanted.

Even though I was already used to living independently and away from my parents, those first days in Hà Nội were nothing like life in Vinh. Everything here is more dynamic and more developed, but also very hurried and hard-pressed. The cost of living here is very high as well. So I decided to find myself a part-time job — partly to share the financial burden with my parents, and partly to grow up and gain more experience. From the beginning of my first year I began tutoring, through an introduction from a relative. I mainly prepare eleventh- and twelfth-grade pupils for the university entrance examination, and I am still doing that work today. Though at times it feels hard, I always tell myself that I must keep trying; knowing that I can help my parents makes me much happier and much stronger.

I have only about two years left before I graduate, and I need to make plans for my future. My dream is to become a university lecturer in Finance and Banking, the very field I am studying. My passion for and delight in this subject are what drive me to pursue that aspiration, and I hope I can play a part in training a generation of dynamic, well-qualified business people who will help build and develop the country. To achieve this dream, I know I will have to try even harder, and always hold firm to my own faith and longing.

Finally, I wish the Our Lady of La Vang Scholarship ever greater strength, and above all I wish the executive board and our benefactors good health and long-term strategies for the growth of the Our Lady of La Vang Scholarship. Especially in reaching out to and supporting students in difficult circumstances who also have strong academic records, and through this building up many promising generations of talent in the three provinces of Nghệ - Tĩnh - Bình, as the scholarship's motto has it.

Hoàng Thị Khánh Huyền Field: Finance and Banking National Economics University