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Dear precious friends of Fulbright University Vietnam,
The month of November marks our annual celebration of Vietnamese Teachers’ Day, in which we honor and pay tribute to the extraordinary teachers, educators, and mentors in our lives. At Fulbright, where each and every member of our academic community dedicates their best endeavors, day and night, to the tireless task of building an internationally recognized university for Vietnam and its young people, the one special day of November 20th might not suffice to express our gratitude to these beloved and esteemed stalwart torchbearers.
Today’s world – whose exemplary denominators are identified as that of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity – puts strenuous strains and mounting demands on the roles and responsibilities of a teacher. To merely relay knowledge will no longer do; teachers of the 21st century should and ought to provide invigorating impetus for students to be evermore inspired, to dare to dream, to pursue a lifelong passion for learning. Above all – and especially at Fulbright – teachers are counted on to endow students with the critical faculties of open inquiry, intellectual curiosity, and the desire to serve and contribute to the common good of society through their empathetic maturity and uniquely individual journey.
Along my very own journey at Fulbright, for the past 5 years, I have been privileged to receive students’ thankful notes and heartfelt admiration expressed to the university’s undergraduate and graduate faculty, whose devoted and empowering tutelage is cherished for transforming their personal attitude and viewpoint towards the true meaning of education, as well as imbuing each and every study session with joyful anticipation and revelatory inspiration.
The terrific efforts of the Fulbright faculty are lauded not only by our students, but equally recognized by the Vietnamese government and multifarious members of our society. Recently, our very own Dr. Vu Thanh Tu Anh, Dean of Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management (FSPPM), has been honored and bestowed the medal “For the Cause of Vietnam’s Diplomacy” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, for his contributions to the training, research, and consultancy of the country’s economic policies over the past years. Under his astute leadership and guidance, alongside generations of experts, advisors, lecturers and scholars, FSPPM has carried over and fleshed out the mission of its antecedent – the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, established in 1994 by the Harvard Vietnam Program – of committing to the country’s foreign affairs in general and economic diplomacy in particular, by advancing Vietnam’s global integration, socio-economic development, and sustainable future.
My dear friends,
This year’s month of November also marks the welcoming of Professor Norah Taylor, Fulbright University Vietnam’s Distinguished Visiting Professor, who has been named Interim Provost of the university. With her depths of experience in education, enriched by her personal attachment and endearment to the country and people of Vietnam, her insightful scholarship and exhaustive appreciation for our arts and culture and that of the whole region, Professor Norah Taylor has our full support in entrusting her with the steadfastness of Fulbright’s future development and cultivation of Vietnam’s next generation of trailblazing talents. The undertakings of a pathfinder of a progressive academic institution definitively entail manifold challenges, but under Professor Norah Taylor’s stewardship, we believe Fulbright’s historied journey will continue to blossom and bear the fruitful rewards of our unwavering commitment to the future of Vietnam.
With the sincerest gratitude
Dam Bich Thuy
President, Fulbright University Vietnam
