The 9x girl is the former valedictorian of Law School, and was able to study straight for a PhD.

The 9x girl Tran Thi Thanh Mai was a former valedictorian of the Law School, and was given special privileges as a civil servant of the General Department of Customs under the policy of recruiting valedictorians of university graduates. She is currently completing the final procedures to receive her PhD degree after 6 years of research.

Tran Thi Thanh Mai (born in 1992, living in Hanoi ) is currently working at the Inspection and Examination Department, General Department of Customs.

Choosing to study Law came naturally because... the house was full of Law books.

Thanh Mai recalls that in her mind, there was never a second choice other than Law because since she was little, the image of her father working late at night, writing articles, was so familiar and deeply imprinted in her mind. Not only that, from childhood to adulthood, Mai saw that almost all of her family's bookshelves were books about Law. "Maybe that's why choosing Hanoi Law University came to me naturally, without having to think about it," Mai said.

When she started university, Mai gradually felt her passion for Law and "exploded" with many "difficult" words. She said: "Around me, there were many super-good students from many different provinces, cities, and schools. Every day I went to school, I felt pressured by that. Another "difficult" word was that I really still could not escape the "passive" learning style of high school students, the class was very crowded, making it quite difficult to listen to lectures in class.

However, when I calmed down, I began to find my own method to adapt to the new university environment, gradually getting used to reading the textbook in advance, including related documents and books before going to class. At that time, listening to lectures was no longer about acquiring knowledge , but became a matter of checking whether I understood the problem correctly, and taking notes with question marks in the margins for discussion if I didn't understand or had different opinions.

At the beginning of her third year of university, Mai had the opportunity to intern at the school's Legal Consulting Center. At that time, the 9x girl's studies became more stressful because she had to complete her studies and complete her internship at the center. Thanks to that pressure, Thanh Mai improved and changed herself from a student who only knew how to study to now being more open, mature, and knowing how to arrange her studies, work and personal life properly.

On her university graduation day, Mai was surprised to learn that she was one of more than 100 valedictorians from universities and colleges in Hanoi who were honored in 2015.

Portrait of former valedictorian of Hanoi Law University in 2015. Photo: NVCC

The 9x girl has been active in Youth Union activities since she was a student. Photo: NVCC

Special admission to the General Department of Customs, direct study for PhD

After graduating with a Bachelor's degree, Mai did not stop her studies there but "recklessly" chose to apply for the graduate program at the school, skipping the graduate program like other students.

I say "reckless" because the majors in Constitutional Law and Administrative Law she registered for only recruited 6 graduate students, the other candidates were all lecturers and civil servants with many years of experience, while she had just graduated from university.

Upon receiving the news that she had been accepted into the PhD program, Mai was the only person in her class who had not yet completed a Master’s degree. Therefore, in addition to pursuing her PhD research program, she also had to complete her Master’s degree program with her fellow graduate students. At the same time, Mai was a lecturer at the Academy of Construction and Urban Management. Maintaining her teaching duties while completing two programs made the young girl feel overwhelmed and pressured.

At the end of 2016, Thanh Mai was directly recruited to become a civil servant of the General Department of Customs under the policy of recruiting university graduates. At that time, Mai was hesitant between two options: Continue pursuing the current research topic or change to another topic suitable for the new job. If she changed the topic, it would mean that all her previous efforts would be in vain. If she continued to develop the old topic, she would encounter many difficulties such as the work and the research topic being completely different.

Because she is still passionate about her initial research topic (State management of urban construction in Vietnam today), Mai accepts to face many difficulties in the next stage of her research. She said that there were times when she sat down to write for a whole week and only got a few pages, then felt unsatisfied, not having enough words to express the ideas she wanted to convey. There were times when she was both happy to have completed the article and then disappointed with herself after receiving feedback from her supervisor.

Every day, Mai can only spend time in the evening or stay up late, on weekends to research. Sometimes work is too busy or she has to go on business trips, leaving the young girl with no time for personal research. Over time, she has to balance herself and not let work "eat up" too much of her research time.

"There was a time when I used the excuse of "not having a master's degree yet" to justify what I couldn't do. But later on, I had to correct that thinking right away. Because over time, it will make me lazy, dependent, and easily satisfied with myself," Mai confided.

Tran Thi Thanh Mai at the Global Vietnamese Young Intellectuals Forum. Photo: NVCC

Although quite busy with work at the office and scientific research, the 9x woman still wants to spread her spirit and energy to many other young people through the Global Vietnamese Young Intellectuals Forum in 2018, 2019, 2020.

Sharing with Tien Phong , Mai said: "I always keep in mind that each person's youth is only one, the Fatherland is only one and is in our hearts. The youth and young intellectuals of the new era do not carry the spirit of "duty" to contribute but are proud of that "Right - the right to contribute".

When coming to the Young Intellectuals Forum, I feel honored and proud. I always have the desire to convey and spread that message to all other delegates so that the young generation of Vietnam around the world can join hands and stand side by side to build and develop the country."

Tienphong.vn