Growing up in the windy borderlands of An Giang Province, Nguyen Hoang Duy, born in 2007 and belonging to the Khmer ethnic group, has become a freshman at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, majoring in Chemical Engineering with an impressive university entrance score of 28.25.

Duy is among those honored in the “Outstanding and Excellent Ethnic Minority Students 2025” program organized by the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs.

Overjoyed at 28.25 - with a touch of regret

Duy’s childhood was marked not by private tutoring or expensive materials but by long afternoons helping his parents run a small business after school. His parents couldn’t guide him through complex formulas, but they taught him something more valuable: diligence and perseverance.

Those lessons became Duy’s personal rule - no matter how hard life got, giving up was never an option.

When the exam results were released, Duy’s hands shook as he refreshed the overloaded website again and again. “When 28.25 appeared, I froze, then screamed out loud,” he recalled.

Yet, the joy was mixed with a bit of disappointment. He had hoped for 29 points in the A00 exam block, believing he made a small mistake somewhere. But soon pride took over - the result reflected his own hard work.

He ran home to tell his parents. “The way my father looked at me - proud and emotional - made me feel twice as happy,” Duy said.

The hardest challenge: self-doubt

For Duy, the most difficult obstacle wasn’t knowledge, but inferiority. “At home, study conditions are nothing like in the city,” he explained. “While city students - especially those at specialized schools - solve complex problems easily, I struggled just to keep up.”

When he decided to join the national gifted student exam, Duy felt overwhelmed. “The material was massive. I had to teach myself everything, choosing what to study without guidance.”

Still, Duy persisted. Despite not attending a specialized school, he made it onto An Giang’s provincial team and later won a National Encouragement Prize.

“It wasn’t the top prize, but it meant a lot,” he said. “I had to overcome my own limits to get it.”

From that experience, Duy realized that the biggest challenge wasn’t knowledge - it was the courage to overcome self-doubt.

He doesn’t deny differences in background but sees them positively: “I want people to see that ethnic minority students, even in difficult conditions, can rise with willpower and intellect.”

That belief drives him forward - to prove that intelligence knows no borders or ethnicity.

A father’s unfinished dream

The person who inspired Duy most was his father, who always valued education as the only way to change one’s destiny. “He once dreamed of becoming an engineer,” Duy said, “but life didn’t allow it. Now I want to continue that dream in my own way - by becoming a chemical engineer.”

Duy describes himself in one word: stubborn. “When I don’t understand something, I stay with it until I do. I study slowly but deeply, never by rote.”

He believes this persistence helped him master his lessons and recall concepts from first principles when needed.

Now a first-year student at one of Vietnam’s most competitive universities, Duy has a message for students from disadvantaged areas:

“Don’t let poverty or your background hold you back. Keep the flame of learning alive. Every dream is reachable if you walk toward it with persistence.”

He smiles and adds, “Just start. The world is wide, waiting for us to learn - and to come home and build our communities stronger.”

Le Huyen