Nguyen Thi Thuy Dung
College of Health Sciences
Thuy Dung grew up in Phan Thiet, a small coastal town in Central Vietnam, with her parents and 2 siblings. Her mother was a primary school teacher (now retired) and her father is a high school math teacher. With two parents as teachers, Thuy Dung always valued education. She won the Gold Medal in Chess in 5th grade, while she was more inclined to study English and history than maths and science. Her interest in English blossomed to winning 1st prize in the Province English Competition and a silver medal in the Southern Region Olympics.
Thuy Dung has wanted to be a doctor since 6 years of age when she role-played a doctor using her toy medical kit. Her interest in medicine became more specific when she read about how some Kings of Vietnam died suddenly and she wanted to know the cause. In 7th grade, she learned that one of the kings died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage and became fascinated by the concept of pathophysiology.
Most of Thuy Dung’s peers applying to medical school were science-based, whereas her interests are in language, social science and humanities. She came to VinUni because she appreciated that VinUni saw her as a “whole person”. She says she “treasures the people surrounding me” because of their varied interests. She is learning from her friends who are entrepreneurs, and researchers – “so many people with talents in so many ways” that inspire her every day. She appreciates that VinUni College of Health Sciences asks her to go beyond memorization to focus on case-based and experiential learning to develop her problem-solving skills.
She plans to pursue a Master’s in Public Health to help her “think beyond diseases” towards an understanding of social and environmental systems that influence health and disease. In doing so, she wants to advance the health of populations. She plans to follow her MPH with clinical training in internal medicine. While Thuy Dung will pursue international postgraduate training to develop an international perspective, she identifies first and foremost as a “citizen of Vietnam” and will return to Vietnam to improve the health of Vietnamese people.
Her full scholarship subsidizes her studies and makes her ambitions possible. As teachers, her parents struggle financially. They could never have afforded to send her to a superior College with an international perspective. As a scholarship recipient, she has had many opportunities beyond her imagination. She is exposed to top international scientists who motivate her to dream bigger and strive to contribute to society’s greatest challenges. Her scholarship also allows her to work hard on her studies without worrying about being a burden on her parents. She says, “Some people think I am crazy in my dedication to my studies,” but with my scholarship, I have the freedom and obligation “not to limit myself”.
