More than a Degree

I come from Bac Kan, now Thai Nguyen, a remote mountainous area facing many challenges. It was the hills and the fields there that instilled in me the hardworking, persistent, and adventurous spirit I have today.

As the eldest child of a low-income family, I always worried about disappointing my parents. That may be why I studied diligently and became a top student in my class. But no matter how good I was, poverty made me think very superficially, like a frog in a well. Afraid of burdening my parents, I decided not to go to university at all. I would study English and work part-time to support my family instead, and my parents accepted it.

Fortunately, not everyone agreed with my decision. One scorching summer day, the vice principal, who was also from my village, visited my house to encourage me to go to school. I still remember what he said, something very blunt but also very true: "Think about it, your parents' lives have been difficult and full of hardship, so if you go to school now, you can finally escape this poverty." He protected my right to an education from the villagers' biased prejudices against attending university. I cried a lot, but I also gained enlightenment. Even so, at 18, I wrote my parents a letter suggesting I work in a factory for a year to earn my tuition first. They scolded me for writing nonsense and promised to do their best to give me a proper education.

I didn't have any particular dreams, so I looked for majors related to my interests, like Korean, because I like listening to K-pop. Then I read a review about studying Spanish at Hanoi University, and a bold idea flashed through my mind: I would try something completely new. Spanish is rare in Vietnam, so back home it felt like a language from another planet. Everyone worried my four years would be wasted, but my parents only wanted me to be happy, so they didn't object. With determination and stubbornness, I made Spanish my first choice and became the top-scoring student in the 2020 entrance exam.

Hanoi was still expensive. My parents together earn less than 5 million VND a month, so from my first semester, I worked part-time, earning 16,000 VND an hour. Without the SAS scholarship, I would have struggled to survive. Sunflower Mission gave me something beyond money, a warm home where members encourage each other without fear of judgment, and where I learned that when you know something, you don't keep it to yourself, you share it and teach it to others.

Those four years were incredibly successful. I finished among the top 10 students in my department, won prizes in writing competitions organized by Spanish-speaking embassies, and was named Outstanding Student of the Year at the University Level in 2022- 2023. In my third year, I began guiding tours for foreign tourists and earned enough to cover my own expenses. I also won a full Erasmus+ scholarship for a five-month exchange in Spain. My family borrowed about 60 million VND to send me, and I paid off almost all of that debt with my scholarship money.

Today I am a freelance Spanish speaker, and my main income comes from tour guiding. After studying abroad, I opened a Spanish pronunciation class that now has twenty regular students and several more online, and I share my experiences on Facebook and TikTok, where students message me for advice. I also bring students from my department along on tours so they can observe and learn.

To students facing the same challenges I faced years ago: material poverty isn't scary; what's scary is poverty of mind and spirit. A university education won't guarantee you a lot of money right away, but it gives you the freedom to choose what's best for you, so go ahead and study!

Vy Thi Huong
Freelance Spanish Interpreter and Tour Guide
Sponsor-A-Student (SAS) Scholarship Alumna