THE ORIENTATION PROGRAM FOR LUONG VAN CAN FUND’S NEW SCHOLARS (ACADEMIC YEAR 2020 – 2021)

On 17-18/10/2020, Luong Van Can Fund organized “Orientation Day” for scholarship recipients in the academic year 2020 -2021. This program is held annually with the purposes of introducing about the Fund as well as building up connections among the members. As a result of Covid-19 pandemic, the program was divided into 3 separate sessions, with different formats and targeted participants, ranging from freshmen in HCMC, freshmen in other provinces and students who were re-awarded the scholarship.

The first orientation session was held on Saturday morning (17/10/2020), at the hall C22 of HCMC University of Natural Science (District 5). The orientation aimed at welcoming 33 LVC freshmen as well as creating a safely distanced environment so that they could meet up and acquaint themselves with others. Also, they were given an insight into the Fund’s missions, core values and activities under the introduction of the Management Board. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao, President of the Fund, there were myriad changes to be initiated this year, one of which was the separation of Community Project from Mentorship program, into a distinctive program for all of the scholars. It was hoped that the scholarship recipients promote the “pay it forward” spirit towards not only disadvantaged members within the community, but also their fellow students. They were also encouraged to, additionally, benefit from the chance for actual skills practices via partaking to organize the Fund’s main activities.

The orientation session was continued with the sharing from Ms. Pham Thuy Tien, a member of the Fund Management Council. In her speech, she emphasized the term that the Fund would like to equip their students – “dream big”, which meant a meaningful dream for oneself as well as for the sake of the community. It was not a luxurious and far-fetched dream to have, provided that one’s every minor behavior all contributed to it. Apart from assisting the talented students with their university pursuits, LVCF also set some standards and requirements so that the scholarship recipients could prepare and perfect themselves every day. It was encouraged by Ms. Tien that the scholars should bravely try new things and be exposed to different experiences to enrich their life acquisitions.

Moreover, the session also honorably welcomed Mr. Ngo Hoang Gia Khanh, COO of Tiki Corporation which was one of the most renowned e-commercial company in Vietnam, one of the Fund’s partners in the Company Tour program. Mr. Khanh did share his perspectives of “dreams” based on his life story from a book-selling child into a distinguished entrepreneur, with the message of plausible dreaming. He advised the youngsters to enhance self-understanding together with self-navigation so as to dream reasonably what they wanted in each stage of life, focusing on developing distinct value systems and eradicating prejudice simultaneously.

For the remaining 2 sessions, all of the information was soundly delivered via the Zoom Meeting platform in the morning and afternoon respectively on 18/10/2020. Despite of the difficulties due to online meeting, the session was successfully carried out with hope and eagerness of all students for a new school year to commence.

As far as the current situation is concerned, the academic year 2020 – 2021 is expected to be challenging, but still possess latently interesting factors in terms of individuals’ flexibility and persistence. Hopefully, Luong Van Can Fund and the 143 scholars will keep up the spirit to constantly renew and adapt for a sustainable development.