Dam Bich Thuy, President of Fulbright University Vietnam, addressed the attendees at the First Convocation for the Co-Design Year 2018-2019 on September 9, 2018:
Welcome to the Co-Design Year 2018 54 students! You have been selected for your talents, your determinations and your dreams, sometimes you told us your crazy dreams but exactly the craziness that makes you stand apart from other people in the application process.
We select you for your intention to do good to the society and to lead the university to create something that is going to benefit your friends,
your brothers, your children, your grand children and I would like to thank you for this.
Now, in the next week and from that on, you are going to learn so many things which could be very different from what you’ve seen until now. You will learn that you are going to look at things from more than one dimension.
You will learn that the math classes are not boring and dry because even the concept of infinity comes in the shape of snow flake. We can all dream and in the tropical country we dream of snow, right?
You will learn that even you look at the simple bank note, the whole history of our country can come before your eyes. Your professors are going to show you that.
You will also learn that in order to create something meaningful, it’s not engineering skills, it’s not the tools, but the ability you can relate to the users in the market.
You will learn how to talk to a lot of users so that they can share with you what kinds of products they want, so that you can make it.
But the most important thing I believe that you would learn something that may be helpful for the rest of your life, which is how to live in harmony with many other people who are very different from us.
Probably, you will learn to share, to care for the people whom you’ve never met but very soon might be your best friends for the rest of your life.
And I hope you will enjoy all these moments for the next few years before you go to the world and be your best.
One last thing that might be not important for you now but I think when you grow up, you will see it is very important. Your family is here.
They are behind you. And don’t forget to call parents, Mom and Dad, to share with them about your day, what you learn, what makes you sad and what makes you excited.
And when they call, please don’t put them on hold. Because, you know, when they have you until now, most of their life have been on hold, preparing you for this moment.
All the best and good luck!”
