Teacher Viet opens private school in the US, helps students get into top universities, with scholarships

That is what Mr. Van Tan Hoang Vy achieved after a long time of having to continuously face many different challenges while taking on multiple roles: teacher, teacher trainer and school leader.

Mr. Van Tan Hoang Vy, Principal of Van Houston Academy (USA)

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Graduated in mathematics from Imperial College London (UK), the school ranked 2nd in the world according to the QS World University Rankings 2025, Van Tan Hoang Vy, from Nha Trang, never thought of pursuing a careerin education but hoped to work in investment banks like his friends. But now, he is the principal of an international-standard private high school in the US with more than 200 students. Among them, many are admitted to top universities in the US with scholarships of up to 100%. Some students even receive dual degrees upon graduation thanks to a training cooperation program with a number of universities.

I don't care how teachers teach and teachers are free to prepare their lesson plans. What matters is whether students understand the lesson and whether they are interested in the lesson.

Van Tan Hoang Vy

Specializing in "difficult" cases

Unlike many colleagues who started in a favorable environment, Mr. Vy had to face a common point from tutoring in the UK during his university years to his journey as a teacher in the US after graduating with a bachelor's degree, which was poor students, poor grades, and a loss of motivation to study. "Not to mention, I have absolutely no teaching experience because I work in a different field," Mr. Vy admitted. However, this did not discourage the male teacher, because he felt he had a connection with teaching, not only the happiness of standing on the podium but "after a few weeks of accompanying, I built a close relationship with the students and they also got high scores". Understanding and valuing each student's story is also the foundation for Mr. Vy's educational philosophy later on. Leaving London (UK) for Houston (USA), Mr. Vy applied for jobs at several schools but was unsuccessful because his profile was not competitive. "Classroom management in the US is very difficult and does not require much knowledge but focuses on practice. Meanwhile, I am a young foreign teacher from Asia. More than a dozen places rejected me, my visa was about to expire, I almost gave up, then luckily I was invited to work at Sam Houston High School," Mr. Vy breathed a sigh of relief.

Mr. Hoang Vy (in purple shirt) with students at Sam Houston High School, 2010

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However, Sam Houston is a special school, not because of its excellent achievements but because it has been ranked as "unacceptable" by the State Board of Education for 6 consecutive years, on the brink of closing. Students at the school come from poor families, many of them get pregnant early, and are involved in social evils. "At that time, everyone said that if I could 'survive' at Sam Houston, no school would be able to make things difficult for me anymore," the male teacher said with a laugh. Here, Mr. Vy took on the responsibility of teaching math to 7 11th grade classes with nearly 200 students. After examining the students' abilities, Mr. Vy not only redesigned the lesson plan to suit each student's weaknesses, but also paid special attention to their daily lives and what they had to go through. "In a 55-minute period, I only spent 7-8 minutes on the podium, the rest of the time was for students to do their homework and I also took the opportunity to walk around the classroom and chat with the kids," Mr. Vy said. According to the male teacher, those short conversations not only help him know whether the students understand the lesson or not, but more importantly, they "weave" a connection between teachers and students instead of imposing hierarchy. Not only passively listening, Mr. Vy also transforms it into action, such as trying to remember the names and hobbies of all the students, or tutoring students for free every morning or afternoon if they wish. After school, he also plays basketball or washes cars with his friends to earn money to visit famous universities, helping students nurture their dreams of going to university - something that almost no student had considered before. "At the age of growing up, all children want to be cared for and looked after. However, caring must come from the heart, through real actions, not just saying it. Don't say 'Hello, how are you?' but call their names, ask the right questions or encourage them properly every time you meet them," the Nha Trang boy acknowledged.

Teacher Hoang Vy on his master's graduation day at Stanford University in 2014

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The "rain" of love helped Mr. Vy receive many "sweet fruits". In the first year, he helped increase the rate of students passing the Texas state standardized math test from 33% to 98%, and 1 year later to 100%, helping all students graduate. After completing the first year, he was also promoted to head of the math department at the school, managing 29 teachers with decades of experience in the classroom. After 4 years, Sam Houston High School was re-accredited by the Texas state education department. During this time, Mr. Vy earned a master's degree in education from the prestigious Stanford University in the US. At the same time, he also took the exam to get a principal's certificate, starting to realize his dream of opening a school in the US for native Vietnamese students as well as other countries, "to spread more widely what he has done".

8 students, 2 teachers

Van Houston Academy, with "Van" being Mr. Hoang Vy's last name and "Houston" being the school's location, was established in 2016 under the "after school" model, which means tutoring students in subjects they are weak in after regular school hours. However, this model cannot retain good teachers because it only teaches 2 hours/day, and is also passive in the teaching process because it can only "patch up" students' missing knowledge. "Although it has a stable profit, for me, tutoring like this does not have much educational meaning. I never thought of opening a private school. It is very unrealistic because only large corporations or churches and religious organizations can do it. Not to mention, many other private schools have been established for a long time, so how can they compete with them. But for the students and the community, I decided to take the risk," said Mr. Vy.

Mr. Hoang Vy (red shirt) celebrates Tet with students at Van Houston School earlier this year.

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8 students, 2 teachers, that was the reality in the first year when Mr. Vy switched to teaching 8 hours/day with 7 subjects, after 2 years of operating the tutoring model. At this time, Mr. Vy has perfected his educational philosophy around motivating and inspiring both students and teachers. "I don't care how teachers teach and teachers can freely prepare lesson plans. What matters is whether students understand the lesson and whether they are interested in the lesson," Mr. Vy said. This philosophy is realized through many different methods. It is to create a relationship between teachers and students based on understanding, not coercion. It is to create opportunities for students to nominate and honor teachers, not just teachers giving one-way rewards to students. It is to build a solid "foundation" of knowledge and skills for students, not to emphasize exams and scores. That is to focus on transforming students instead of recruiting excellent students to get achievements... "We must make sure that students have enough capacity to leave university, not just graduate from high school," Mr. Vy shared the purpose of the educational program he compiled himself. This helped the school increase to 20 students and 4 teachers by the end of the year, despite constantly facing doubts from parents and colleagues about whether it was a scam, whether it really helped students achieve good results or not. By the second year, the number doubled to 40 students. Then, due to Covid-19, Mr. Vy advised his students to go to public schools because his school did not have enough resources to do online teaching well. "At that time, I closed the school but still had to pay rent. There was a time when I thought I was going bankrupt," Mr. Vy recalled.

Mr. Hoang Vy (right cover) and Ms. Sandra Harper (3rd from left), Principal of McMurry University (USA), took a souvenir photo with 8 students who received their university degrees (2-year program) from the school in early May, even though they had not yet graduated from high school.

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By the summer of 2021, when the US ended social distancing, the principal once again gathered the teaching staff, all of whom were Americans, in the hope of "saving" the school. Mr. Vy said that after hearing the news, some teachers immediately quit their jobs at public schools to return to work, even though their salaries were much lower, "because they considered this their second home". "80% of students who had previously gone to public schools also returned, and many parents even introduced more," he said. By the 2023-2024 school year, the school had a total of 200 students at all levels. A notable milestone for the school was in 2022, after many rounds of evaluating the curriculum, lesson plans, and interviewing students and teachers, the school was certified by Cognia - the leading educational accreditation organization in the US. This move helps ensure the school's diploma is valid. Another highlight is that the school has now expanded its teaching from kindergarten to high school, Mr. Vy added. "At the graduation ceremony held in mid-May, although only 11 students received their diplomas, there were 500 people in attendance. Many of the students in the class were accepted into top schools in the state such as UT Austin and Texas A&M. Some of them even had the opportunity to receive a 2-year university degree with students through a dual program that we designed in collaboration with 3 partner universities," Mr. Vy proudly said. Vivian Nguyen, a former student graduating in 2022, said the school helped her mature thanks to opportunities such as leadership, public speaking and working with children of all ages. "The teachers here are amazing. They always try their best to help us move forward step by step," said the female student who received a full scholarship to study nursing from St. Thomas University (USA).

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Source: https://thanhnien.vn/thay-viet-mo-truong-tu-o-my-giup-hoc-sinh-vao-dh-hang-dau-co-hoc-bong-185240702085136306.htm