(Dan Tri) - Growing up in a place where many of her peers dropped out of school after 9th grade to work, or "followed their husbands and gave up the game", Nung Vi Thi Thu Ha entered Fulbright University based on her mother's advice "don't rush into getting married".
With a special scholarship to support study costs, 18-year-old female student Vi Thi Thu Ha, Nung ethnic minority, from Ea O commune, Ea Kar district, Dak Lak province, became a new student at Fulbright University.
The organizers saw in this girl the strong will to overcome difficult circumstances and local social prejudices about female students going far in their studies. At the same time, the girl also brought inspiration about the desire to learn, the desire for change starting from education .
English class "use whatever you have at home"
Vi Thi Thu Ha made her mark by opening a free English class for children in her hometown, many of whom are ethnic minorities, since the summer of her 9th grade year.
Ha attends high school nearly 100km from home, and summer is the time she has off to return home. While tutoring her two younger siblings, Ha realized that learning English for children in her locality is very difficult and lacking.
If children study according to the elementary school program, they will only receive guidance from teachers in class, and there will be almost no additional support.
Ha suddenly thought: "I teach the younger siblings, why not teach the younger ones too?" When Ha told her about her intention, her mother and many uncles and aunts in the village nodded and said "do it right away, my child".
So a free English class for the village children was opened right at Ha's house. It was called a class but in fact the house used whatever was available. The class had no blackboard, no tables or chairs...
The class only had the teacher, Ms. Ha, and a few children from the village. In that class, Ha clearly saw the children's desire to learn and to expand their knowledge. They wanted to be exposed to English more often, to read short stories and write basic sentences, and to practice listening and speaking skills through short conversations.
From that class, Ha clearly felt the happiness of being able to give others what she had and what she had learned. Every summer or whenever she had a chance to return home, Ha took advantage of every opportunity to open a class.
Step out into the world with a project aimed at farmers
In the 2021-2022 school year, while studying in grade 11, Thu Ha and her group of friends at Dong Du Secondary and High School, Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak excellently won first prize at the National Science and Technology Competition for high school students with the project "Design and manufacture of a semi-automatic passion fruit juice extraction machine".
This project is also among the top projects representing Vietnam to participate in the 2022 International Science and Technology Fair held in the United States.
The idea came from the students who witnessed farmers working manually, with low efficiency. They observed that the traditional extraction method made the passion fruit juice taste bitter, mixed with impurities from the peel and pulp.
"How to make farmers less tired?", that question is the motivation for Thu Ha's group to think of solutions to help farmers increase productivity while ensuring the best quality of agricultural products after harvest.
In this project, Thu Ha was assigned to program a semi-automatic passion fruit juice extractor. This was a task that required creativity and challenge as most of the knowledge surrounding the project was quite specific and required a lot compared to high school students.
To solve difficult problems such as how to optimize the operating principles of the machine, which method will help bring the most effective productivity... Thu Ha searched and read related documents, "dug up" all the scientific videos on YouTube, and learned more from experiences shared on online forums.
Behind my mother's advice "don't rush into marriage"...
Ha was born and raised in a rural area with a large ethnic minority population. There, her classmates often only finished 9th grade and then dropped out to help support their families or get married early.
The student had witnessed and cried many times when her friends said goodbye to school to get married. That path of many young people in the area is like a pre-programmed "railroad".
As for Ha, looking back, she feels lucky to have gotten off that "track" thanks to her parents' different way of thinking, especially her mother.
As a woman burdened with taking care of children and family, Ha's mother has profound experience of the confined life of a woman struggling with small children and gardening.
From her own life experiences, mother told Ha and her sisters that as girls, they must first learn to read and write, must have a career, must be independent before thinking about getting married. Things that Ha's mother and many other women rarely knew before.
Ha overcame the barrier of "getting married early" thanks to her mother's encouragement and life, along with the motivation from her father who was willing to do everything to take care of his children's education.
"All four sisters in my family have been able to go to school. I am the first child in my family to go to university," Ha said about "being able to go to school" with endless happiness.
Education helps Ha meet people, travel, expand her horizons, explore the world, explore herself; education helps Ha's life go in a positive direction...
Now that she is in college far from home, Ha still wants to continue her English classes every summer. The kids still need her, Ha will still be there, she doesn’t want her classes to stop.
Ha teaches English to children, but it seems like it's not just about English. Behind that, it's also about sending and giving aspirations, paths...
Desire to go far away to return
Thu Ha shared that she has many plans and intentions. In the near future, Ha will try her best to study well in university and participate in social activities. Later, if she has the opportunity, she will continue her studies at a higher level...
But Ha's destination is still to go to return. Currently, Ha's biggest goal is still to return to her hometown to help people develop the economy, thereby contributing to the children's development, so that they can go further and further through the path of studying, through the foundation of education.
At the age of 18, Ha realized that on the journey of self-development, the ultimate goal was not to have a prosperous and happy life for herself alone. Equally important was how to spread that happiness and motivation to everyone around her. Life is only truly meaningful when you know how to receive and how to give...
"Before, I was very hesitant to speak up about my plans and projects because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to carry them out. Now, I realize that sharing positive things helps me be more determined and live more responsibly," she confided.
Dantri.com.vn
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