With a pension of 6 million VND, the former principal still spent 2 billion VND to give to poor students.

At the age of 89, the former principal of a university still decided to spend 2 billion VND to establish a scholarship fund for poor students and colleagues.

Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Van Dien, former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry

PHOTO: HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY

That is Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Van Dien, former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry. The information was confirmed by Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry.

The scholarship fund "is the most precious reward of my life"

At the recent anniversary celebration of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, Associate Professor Dr. Doan Van Dien (89 years old), former Principal of the school, shared his wish to use his personal money of 2 billion VND to establish a scholarship fund to support students and lecturers of the school.

Sharing at the celebration, Associate Professor Dr. Doan Van Dien said that 20 years ago, he and his wife had planned to set up a scholarship fund to help poor but studious students. "We don't have the conditions to do everything, but at least a small scholarship fund can encourage them to become adults and build the country," he said.

After a period of saving, Associate Professor Dien decided to spend 2 billion VND to establish a scholarship fund in his name. He entrusted this money entirely to Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry to annually award scholarships to poor students according to the criteria that the two sides discussed when establishing the fund. "Contributing to future generations of students is the most precious reward in my life," Associate Professor Dien emphasized.

Not only students, Associate Professor Dien also hopes that each year the fund will award one prize to excellent teachers, loved by students, who participate in science and teach using new methods. "Those are my colleagues, who have the motivation to bring students to the final destination," Associate Professor Dien added.

Sharing about the origin of the above amount of money, Associate Professor Dien said: "This money is really the result of my hard work". The former principal said that when he retired, he only had a pension of 6 million VND/month - the lowest pension for a principal upon retirement. "But I have a philosophy of knowing enough is enough", he said. After retiring, he became the principal of 2 private schools with a fairly high income and saved the above amount of money.

"I hope this is just the first step on the journey to build Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry in the coming time. With an initial capital of about 2 billion VND, if following the current bank interest rate, each year the interest will be 70-80 million VND and can give 10-15 scholarships to students and 1 reward to teachers," he wished.

"School is where I grew up, I was helped by students to become a person, to be exact. Today, students come back to school to show their gratitude to teachers, but I come back here to show my gratitude to students," the former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry shared when returning to school on November 20.

Associate Professor Dr. Doan Van Dien is known as the person who inspires generations of students with great inspiration about the teaching profession.

"If I am human again in the next life, I will also be a teacher."

Not only supporting students with scholarships, the former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry also passed on to generations of students great inspiration about the teaching profession.

Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Van Dien once shared his emotions about education at the ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Vietnamese Teachers' Day and the 67th anniversary of the establishment of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry. The former Principal said that in his life, he remembered most the saying of a poet, that education is the greatest work of human beings, without education people become crude, miserable and unhappy.

"Before retiring, I said that if I were to be a human in the next life, I would also like to be a teacher because that is the most glorious thing, but for education to be great, the teacher must be great. We do not claim to be great, but society respects teachers," Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Van Dien expressed.

Telling students, Mr. Dien said: "Studying is not difficult, the difficulty we need to have to rise up is human personality. When we have human personality, we can overcome anything, of course in our own field."

"What I want to convey to students is that nothing is difficult, first of all, cultivate human character, when people have character, they can overcome anything", the former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry emphasized.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/luong-huu-6-trieu-dong-nguyen-hieu-truong-van-danh-2-ti-dong-tang-sinh-vien-ngheo-185241127105948685.htm