However, studying in the US was not the first choice of the Vietnamese girl. Ngoc was an English linguistics students at Quy Nhon University in Vietnam.

As a third-year student, Ngoc persuaded her parents to allow her to study abroad, because she wanted to ‘study something different’.

So she left her home city for the US.

Before deciding to study pharmacy, Ngoc had to spend a lot of time to find out what she wanted and identify her strong and weak points. During the two years at Richland College, she took an extra job at a lab, where she took part in microbial culture experiments and felt excited about it. This prompted Ngoc to choose to study pharmacy and medicine.

There were three choices for her – becoming a nurse, physician and pharmacist. She was not interested in nursing, and it would take too much time (8 years of study and 3 years of practice) to become a physician. She decided to spend six years studying to become a pharmacist and applied for Tyler College.

During the study, Ngoc went to work as a volunteer at free clinics for low-income people. She was enthusiastic and considerate w' to many patients. She felt happy as she was beloved and mentioned when she was absent.

In general, schools in the US do not offer full scholarships to medical students, because medical workers have high income after graduation. However, Ngoc obtained q scholarship for the school worth $20,000. With the achievement, she was one of two members of the class hired by the school to tutor students at the school.

“The job was quite interesting and I could learn so much from it. I had two hours during lunchtime to work as tutor,” she recalled.

Ngoc finished the course last May with pride as she was the top graduate with the perfect GPA of 4.0. She also came first in the test for professional capability assessment.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Ngoc spike about her life in the US. She believes that she made the right decision because the school environment there gave her many things. From classmates, she learned patience, goals and striving for the best in life.

She believes that young people need to set goals for themselves and dream big dreams. The process of implementing plans will help people grow.

Le Huyen

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