(Dan Tri) - Phung Ha Thu, a former student of Foreign Language High School, won a scholarship of 8 billion VND from Colby College thanks to her perseverance in pursuing her dream and maintaining her passion for writing.
Ha Thu is a former student of the English B2 class, K52, of the Foreign Language High School. She received a scholarship of more than 8 billion VND from Colby College, USA.
Constantly striving to realize the dream of studying abroad since primary school
While still in high school, Thu won many outstanding achievements such as: Encouragement prize in the National High School Excellent Student Competition, First prize in the High School Olympic Competition organized by Hanoi National University.
Ha Thu shared that the dream of studying abroad came to her when she was very young. When she was in primary school, she happened to read a book about studying abroad. At that time, Thu only knew of one university in the US, which was Harvard University.
Later, when I was in middle school and high school, I learned more and found many other schools that were more suitable for my orientation and family conditions and nurtured my dream from there.
Thu's homeroom teacher said that Thu became the class monitor after passing the challenge she set. During the 3 years, Thu showed herself to be a responsible class monitor, working scientifically , reasonably, and having good connections with everyone, so when working, her classmates always supported her.
Besides, Thu also tries hard in all subjects, without being biased in any subject. With English, Thu is superior, so later she joined the English team and also achieved high results.
Image of Phung Ha Thu, a female student who received an 8 billion VND scholarship from an American university (Photo: NVCC).
Thu herself enjoys participating in extracurricular activities, partly because of her passion, partly because it helps her study abroad application a lot, and also helps her meet friends she loves. Despite many difficulties in the implementation process as well as the scholarship application process, Thu always tries her best to progress and do her best within her ability.
In high school, Thu was the co-secretary general of the Hanoi Model United Nations (HMUN). This is the organization she has been involved with the longest. She has held positions ranging from designer to co-chair and crisis coordinator after much effort, to create conferences for young people to participate in.
During the application process for scholarships to study in the US, Thu also had to prepare a large number of essays and had difficulty keeping her application consistent. During the early application period, although she received many acceptance notices, most of them were not from the schools she wanted.
"When the deadline came, I received a lot of rejection notices. At that time, I was quite worried that if I failed all the schools, I would lose my direction and not know where to study. But in the end, luck smiled on me and I was accepted into the school I wanted," Thu said.
A good GPA is the key to getting noticed by the Admissions Committee.
Thu started preparing for her study abroad application in the middle of 11th grade, about a year before universities in the US opened their application portals. She said that GPA is extremely important in the process of applying for a scholarship to study in the US, so she always tries to keep her GPA above 9.5 and gradually increase it over the years.
"GPA is a reflection of your ability to learn in a teaching environment, so I try to keep my score improving every year. The admissions board can look at my transcript and see my growth. My grades are quite even and none of my subjects have a very low score.
In recent years, SAT scores (standardized aptitude tests) are no longer required in applications due to the Covid-19 pandemic and some families do not have enough money to let their children take standardized tests. Therefore, many universities in the US have dropped the requirement for these certificates," Thu said.
Thu believes that GPA is an important factor when schools look at candidates' profiles (Photo: NVCC).
Thu's SAT score was 1540/1600, a fairly high score compared to the average. In addition, Thu also studied for the TOEFL (international English proficiency test) in just one week and achieved 115/120 points.
For Thu, studying for the TOEFL test was not too difficult because she liked the open-ended writing format and short test length. In addition, Thu also had a good foundation in English.
"Self-study is not difficult for me because my friends all say that the exam is not difficult, so I study with a relaxed mindset. My friends and I also share study materials to save money. For speaking and writing skills tests, I often find questions online and then time myself to practice.
While studying for the exam, I also participated in other events. My mood during the exam is very important to me. If I enter the exam with pressure and restless limbs, I will definitely not get good results. But if I relax before the exam, my results will be much better," Ha Thu shared.
When preparing a study abroad application, Thu advises young people to set a direction and arrange their application in a consistent manner with that direction, with clear strengths. During the essay writing stage, although there were many difficulties, because of her love for writing, writing essays was quite fun for Thu and helped her thinking become more logical.
In addition, the factor that made Thu's profile noticeable was also thanks to the abilities she demonstrated to the school, a synthesis of short stories, essays and academic articles Thu had written.
This is what makes Thu stand out because all the stories she tells show who she is as a person, how proud she is of herself, and how she will contribute to the school.
Endless passion for writing
Born into a family with a culture of reading, Thu has had a love for and been greatly inspired by her mother in reading since childhood. Thu and her mother often go shopping for books to strengthen their mother-daughter bond as well as enrich the reading culture in the family.
Thu loves writing as much as reading and is especially fond of writing love stories:
"I like writing stories about love. Although this is a fairly familiar topic, I always see that there are many shapes of love out there and I want to convey them through my stories.
My inspiration for writing comes from small newspaper clippings about world events. I often think, if there was a couple in that event, how would their story unfold?
Besides, I am also quite positive and realistic, I like to feel the love people have for me, so writing about love is quite easy and instinctive. I feel that writing is quite fun and relaxing.
Even though I use a different pen name when I write, most of my friends find my stories to read. Sometimes, I see comments from readers I don't know and I'm so happy because what I write makes their day so much better."
Ha Thu (right) has an endless passion for writing (Photo: NVCC).
Thu's essays submitted to American universities are also expressed by storytelling, using images, language, artistic techniques, and poetry.
Growth mindset for success
Thu shared that she is always aware that she is thinking too much. Being aware of this is extremely important, because it will make her think less about things that are not valuable and actively focus on thinking about the lesson and connecting knowledge together.
"I have an undying belief that I am very special and was born with a special purpose in this life. So whenever I encounter difficulties or someone doubts my abilities, I will ignore them, because I am confident in my abilities," Thu affirmed.
"This doesn't mean I don't listen to others. I know what I can do and if I can't, I accept it to make up for my shortcomings to become more perfect.
This also helps improve your confidence a lot and has a positive influence on people around you. For example, if you believe that you are capable of studying well, are pretty, and good-looking, this will reinforce the way people see you, and feel happy when receiving positive energy from you.
From there, I can handle pressure quite well, I study quite comfortably, I don't need to study until one or two in the morning, I just simply do well what I'm doing, feel happy and satisfied with what I do," Thu confided.
In the US, Thu shared, everyone quite liked and trusted her when they learned that she was from Vietnam. Most of the lecturers and students here know that Vietnamese students have good academic performance and a lot of potential.
"This is quite interesting because every time people hear about Vietnamese students, they exclaim and say that you must be very good at studying," Thu said.
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