VietNamNet Bridge - Two Vietnamese students who won gold medals at the 2015 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) are from poor families.

 

Nguyen The Hoan was part of a team of excellent students attending the 2015 IMO, where he won a gold medal, the second Olympiad gold in his life.

Hoan was born into a poor family in Thai Binh province. Besides field work, his parents work as assistants to construction workers to support Hoan and his brother, and fund their studies.

Nguyen Thi Thanh, Hoan’s mother, said with three sao (one sao is equal to 360 square meters) of rice fields, the field work is not enough to feed four mouths.

She has to save every dong to pay tuition and fund the two sons’ studies.

Therefore, Thanh and her husband decided to take extra jobs in Hanoi from which they can earn VND6-7 million more every month. 

Half of the sum is spent on Hoan’s tuition and their living expenses, while the remaining is sent to Hoan’s grandfathers in the home village who help raise Hoan’s brother, who studies in a literature class at a high school.

Hoan, who pities his parents’ hard work, dreams of getting a good job and earning big money to help ease the parents’ workload.

Hoan passed the entrance exams to three famous high schools, but he decided to study at the Hanoi National University’s High School for the Gifted, where his idol, Professor Ngo Bao Chau, a Fields medal winner, once studied.

Hoan told reporters that he wants to study abroad with a scholarship.

The second golden boy of the Vietnamese competition team is Vu Xuan Trung, a 11th grader at the Thai Binh provincial High School for the Gifted.

Born into a farmer family with five children in Lich Dong hamlet of Thai Binh province, Trung and his siblings led hard lives. Four Trung’s sisters only finished secondary school and they had to stop learning to help their parents with their work.

Trung’s father is a lock repairman, while his mother runs a small grocery. Their income is enough to feed the seven family members.

However, Trung has always been an excellent student. When Trung was a fifth grader, he won the first prize at the national math competition for children.

When he was at secondary school, he got first prize at the provincial math competition. He won the second prize at the national math competition when he was in the 11th grade and then the gold medal at the 2015 IMO in Thailand.

Thanh Mai