Minh surprised her relatives and friends when she told them that she had been admitted to the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in the US, to major in environmental science.

In November 2019, when walking with her father on streets, she saw cleaners eating bread next to their dust-carts waiting for trucks to come and carry waste to the city’s landfills.

“While many workers can have meals and relax in favorable conditions, many others have to work hard in severe weather,” her father words told her.

At that time, in addition to subjects about sciences she studied at school, the girl had a passion for music and painting. She was once a member of the team organizing fine arts exhibition and worked as curator. Minh also had an aptitude for music, playing instruments, such as piano, violin and drum. She even could play music in the school’s orchestra.

“I could find big joy in diverse musical language. Music is a language which breaks every boundary and unites people together,” she said. 

What Minh’s father told her on that day was the major reason to make a turning point. On the New Year’s Eve, she did not stay at home and wait the first minutes of the new year with parents, but spent time with the city’s cleaners. And she did the same thing the next New Year’s Eve and realized that she wanted to help find solutions to society’s problems.

When talking to the cleaners, she found that the collection, classification and treatment of waste in Vietnam’s cities was unreasonable, which resulted in poor waste treatment, and bad odors and impact on urban landscapes.

“I found that cleaners worked hard from early in the morning to late afternoon, but the work never finishes,” Minh recalled, believing that the problems were due to waste classification regulations, people’s low awareness, and unreasonable policies.

Instead of choosing popular majors such as artificial intelligence (AI), finance, communications and business administration, Minh decided to study environmental science.

“I chose this major because I want to optimize the process of collecting and treating waste,” Minh explained.

Her experiences and thoughts were described in her essay when she applied to universities in the US.

In addition to the essay, Minh also had impressive records at school, with many prizes from international mathematics and physics competitions, including a gold medal from International Math Challenge, silver medal from International Youth Math Challenge, and consolidation prize at Physico Challenge and Stemco Olympiad.

Minh was also the chair of a Model United Nations Conference for international school students in Asia.

Minh said she was excited when receiving the news about being admitted to Berkeley, because she knew that her dream of building a sustainable environment in Vietnam could become realistic.

In addition to UC Berkeley, Minh also received admission letters from other five universities in the US.

“I have chosen this major because environment is one of the important factors which decides if a country is a developed and wealthy one,” she said.

The student believes that with changes in thinking and determination in protecting the country's environment, if she studies well, she will not lack opportunities to express herself in the future.

"I hope that my moves will help change the community’s thoughts and awareness, which will bring value to future life,” Minh said.

Minh will leave Vietnam for the US in August with the plan to study environmental policies, waste management systems, and possible impact on humans’ behaviors.

Minh is finishing high school and is planning to learn new skills to adapt to her new life in the US.

Thanh Hung