Valedictorians overcome difficulties at special schools in Nghe An

Orphaned male student is valedictorian of Biology

3 years ago, Tran Hoang Anh Tu (class 12A1, First Prize, Valedictorian of Biology) moved from Dien Chau to study at Hermann Gmeiner High School (Vinh City) with a scholarship for poor students overcoming difficulties. The 15-year-old boy lost his father at a young age, living with his grandmother who is over 70 years old; his younger brother lives with his grandparents. His mother, due to the burden of the family, has worked abroad for many years. Since his mother went to work far away, the number of times Tu has seen his mother can be counted on the fingers of one hand. To save on travel expenses, Tu and his mother can only see each other once every few years.

Because of his difficult circumstances and understanding of his family's circumstances, Tu had a sense of independence early on. He was smart and talented, so in his junior high school years he was an excellent student at the district level in Biology. In 10th grade, although he had quite good abilities in natural subjects and was selected by many teachers to be in the excellent student team, Tu was determined to pursue Biology because he knew this was the subject he had the best foundation for. Moreover, in his memory, his father died at a very young age due to a serious illness, so Tu nurtured the dream of becoming a doctor, later on saving many difficult circumstances.

During the learning process, due to special conditions, Tu and many other students at SOS Children's Villages seem to not attend extra classes much and mainly only learn from teachers at school.

Therefore, Tu's secret to studying well is also very simple: Biology is the subject he has the best foundation in. However, he is not subjective and always determines that if he wants to study well, he must have a firm grasp of the knowledge in the textbooks. He does not only study one book but also reads all the textbooks from many different publishers, learns and understands every word.

"Besides that, I also diligently do the test and practice the test. If there are problems I don't understand, I don't hesitate to ask my friends, ask my teachers and learn more online. I also study other subjects in a similar way, the core thing is still to have a firm grasp of the basic knowledge and be diligent," Tu said.

To reach the first prize at the Provincial Excellent Student Competition for Grade 12 and achieve the valedictorian position, Tu shared many unforgettable memories, especially when he won convincingly with 18.38 points. This is also the highest score Tu has achieved after more than 3 years of persistent training in the team.

Father is a construction worker, mother is a farmer to raise her son to be the valedictorian

Nguyen Viet Quang (student of class 12A6) is the student who brought home First Prize and was the Valedictorian in History for Hermann Gmeiner High School in this year's exam season with 15.88 points.

Quang grew up in Thanh Tung commune, Thanh Chuong district and is the eldest of four siblings. After finishing junior high school, Quang also had the opportunity to enter a public school near his home. However, because his mother stayed at home to farm and his father worked as a construction worker with a hard-earned income, in grade 10, Quang decided to go to Hermann Gmeiner High School because he was exempted from tuition, food, accommodation, and living expenses.

Talking about Quang, teacher Nguyen Thi Yen said: Quang has a talent for social subjects. Especially with History, I see Quang listens very attentively. After class, he often comes up to the teacher to ask questions he doesn't understand or understand. Seeing Quang's love for history, I encouraged him to join the team because to study well, to be good at studying, first of all, you need to have passion.

Choosing history and having to compete with many other students who were “better than me”, Quang admitted that he felt a lot of pressure. To shorten the gap, he determined to focus on studying and only spent about 3-4 hours sleeping each day. In addition to studying and mastering the knowledge in class, Quang found many books to read, trying to expand and connect historical events with reality.

The new valedictorian of this year's Provincial Excellent Student Exam said: "To study History well, diligence is not enough. In addition, you must have a mindset, be systematic, and learn to understand, not simply memorize one-way."

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Over the years, SOS Children's Village has always created conditions for the children in the village to study and live as if they were in their own family and the children have not disappointed their expectations to bring back outstanding achievements. Their success is the motivation for other students of the Village to strive to improve. This also recognizes the care, nurturing, and attention of mothers, aunts, uncles and teachers at school. More importantly, this result has demonstrated the success of the model for the children to develop comprehensively.

Mr. Le Ba Luong - Director of SOS Children's Villages