Students overcome difficulties, spread love

Student Phan Ngoc Thuy Trang (residing in Buu Long Ward, Bien Hoa City, English Language Faculty, Lac Hong University) has a difficult family situation so she had to be independent since middle school. In order not to become a burden on her family, she had to work 3 jobs a day, even putting her university studies on hold during the Covid-19 outbreak to make a living.

Ms. Phan Ngoc Thuy Trang (3rd from right) is always enthusiastic about the Union - Association activities at Lac Hong University. Photo: L.Duy

With her constant efforts, Ms. Trang was honored as “5 Good Students”, “Beautiful Youth” and was the initiator and maintainer of the effective activities of the “Lovely Bien Hoa” Volunteer Group, regularly distributing rice and gifts to children and homeless people in Bien Hoa city.

Live responsibly and share

One weekend evening in Buu Long ward, where a member of the group “Lovely Bien Hoa” set aside a small corner of her house to gather belongings and prepare meals, drinks, and gifts for the homeless, Ms. Trang and the group members were busy dividing the meals, wrapping the gifts into small, clean portions, preparing to give them to people in difficult circumstances.

Sitting in the soft yellow light of the porch, Trang shared her story of overcoming difficulties while dividing her food into boxes. She spent her childhood with her grandparents because her parents were divorced. Her father is currently a worker in Binh Duong province and lives alone in a rented house. Her mother has her own family in Binh Phuoc province. Trang's younger brother (20 years old) dropped out of school early and is currently a bartender at a coffee shop in Bien Hoa city.

Living with her grandparents since childhood, to help them, she soon had a sense of independence. In the summer of 9th grade, when her friends were still having fun, she secretly worked as a waitress at a coffee shop, delivering milk tea to earn money to take care of herself. In 10th grade, she moved to Phu Quoc Island ( Kien Giang Province) to live with her father (at that time her father worked on Phu Quoc Island), studying and working part-time at restaurants.

In 2018, thanks to her fluent speaking ability, Trang started selling online. By 2019, this job had developed strongly. She studied online (because the Covid-19 pandemic had just begun), live streamed to sell products, and delivered goods herself until late at night. Every day, after deducting expenses, she set aside a portion to help her father go to the market, give her younger brother pocket money, and take care of herself.

In 2020, Trang passed the entrance exam to Lac Hong University, majoring in English. But just after completing her first year, in 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, turning everything upside down. She was given a week off by the school, which coincided with the Doan Ngo Festival, so she went back to her hometown in Phu Yen province to visit, but unexpectedly was stuck there for 8 months due to social distancing regulations to control the epidemic. Because she did not bring her books or laptop, and her phone signal was weak; at the same time, her father was infected with Covid-19 and had to be quarantined, so he lost his income and did not have money to pay her tuition on time, so she had to put her studies on hold for a year.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began to subside, Trang returned to live with her grandmother in Buon Ma Thuot City (Dak Lak Province). She worked all kinds of jobs to make ends meet. During the day, she helped teach at a private boarding school, and in the evening, she collected bird's nests for hire.

“The job of collecting bird’s nests often has a fishy smell. There were many days when I came home and felt nauseous and had to stop eating, but I still had to try. There were days when I was so tired that my face turned pale. I went into my room and cried without daring to let my grandmother know, for fear of making her sad,” Trang said.

By 2023, Ms. Trang will return to Lac Hong University. Currently, she is interning at the Lac Hong University Youth Union Office, working as a content collaborator, event organizer, video editor with a monthly allowance of about 500,000 to 1 million VND. In addition, she also tutors English with an income of 2-3 million VND/month and occasionally works as a makeup and nail model to earn extra income.

“My income now is only enough to pay for rent and cover some living expenses, not as much as when I was selling online. I am focusing on studying to graduate and cannot help my family much,” said Trang.

Despite being very busy with work, Ms. Trang still maintains good academic performance, enthusiastically participates in movement activities and spends time with the group "Lovely Bien Hoa" spreading kindness every week with a strong determination: as long as she is healthy, she will always live to love and share.

With her constant efforts in studying, training and participating in movement activities, Ms. Phan Ngoc Thuy Trang was honored to receive the title of "5 Good Students" at the school level for the 2022-2023 school year, was awarded the title of Beautiful Living Youth by the Provincial Youth Union and received a Certificate of Merit from the Vietnam Student Association of Dong Nai province for her outstanding achievements in the Association's work and Student Movement.

Turn pressure into motivation

With good academic results, Ms. Trang is eligible for a scholarship from Lac Hong University, so she will receive a 30% reduction in tuition fees per semester. This scholarship is a reward for students who study well and have made positive contributions to the Association and Student Movement.

Ms. Trang has also tried to maintain the activities of the group "Lovely Bien Hoa" for more than 2 years now.

Ms. Phan Ngoc Thuy Trang (standing 2nd from left), a student of Lac Hong University, and the "Lovely Bien Hoa" volunteer group gave charity meals to homeless people in Bien Hoa city.

“The group always strives for kindness, regularly preparing about 50 meals and gifts each month to give to the homeless. The funding comes from the group members' contributions,” said Ms. Trang.

Recently, the “Lovely Bien Hoa” group was nominated at the Dong Nai Social Network Awards 2024 contest organized by the Department of Information and Communications (old) in coordination with the Provincial Youth Union, to honor and honor social networking sites that operate effectively and have a positive influence on the community, held in October 2024. The “Lovely Bien Hoa” group entered the contest with an entry summarizing the projects it has implemented since its establishment. Ms. Trang considers this a meaningful milestone, not only a recognition for the group, but also a motivation to continue spreading good things in the community.

Ms. Trang is preparing to graduate in July 2025. She plans to pursue her passion for multimedia communications - a field that she has spent a lot of time researching and trying out since she was a collaborator of the School Youth Union Office.

“I study English but am passionate about multimedia (filming, photography, video editing). I want to tell life stories not only through images, in Vietnamese, but also in English so that many people can access the content I produce.”

Secretary of the Lac Hong University Youth Union Truong Le Bao Trinh commented: “Ms. Trang is one of the most active and responsible students in the Union - Association activities and social work of the school. Not only does she participate actively, she also plays the role of team leader in many major programs such as: Tet Bus Trip, Exam Support, Lac Hong Student Festival... Ms. Trang is always the one who proactively proposes ideas, contributing to bringing newness and effectiveness to the programs”.

Le Duy

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/202505/sinh-vien-vuot-kho-lan-toa-yeu-thuong-0de2d62/