As the President of the GFS Student Council, President of the Volunteer Club in the 2023-2024 academic year, Le Thu Tra (12G2, Global Citizenship Bilingual System) has made her mark on leadership capacity and community spirit with a variety of projects and social activities. That long history of activity not only brought her memorable experiences but also was the key to helping her open the door to British University Vietnam (BUV) with a 50% scholarship and VinUni University with a 70% scholarship.

Turning passion into community value

From a young age, Thu Tra had a strong love for the pages of books. The more she read and explored, the more she discovered the knowledge and good values ​​that books contain. In 10th grade, while participating in a charity trip to the highlands, Thu Tra realized that although the charity delegation brought many books to the children, they did not know what to do with the donated books.

"Some of the books we donated were very expensive, but when I asked people around what people do with books, there were answers that made me very worried. Rich people, they use money to buy knowledge to become richer than the poor, but the poor people don't know how to get rich from knowledge" - Thu Tra confided.

From what she observed, Thu Tra cherished the dream of building a good community, where book lovers can join hands to spread the value and love of books to those around them. And above all, she wanted to change the mindset of giving and receiving. Instead of receiving in one direction, the people who are given books also participate in the community, together form a habit of reading books, and have a long-term vision for the future.

Also from that dream, Thu Tra boldly applied for the position of President of the Greenfield Volunteer Club (GVC). Previously, GVC had made a name for itself with "Sunshine" - a fundraising project to build libraries and playgrounds for children in the highlands through a charity music night. Receiving the trust from the seniors, Thu Tra became the President of GVC in the 2023-2024 academic year.

In just 1 year, under the leadership of Thu Tra, GVC successfully implemented 4 major projects: organizing a Mid-Autumn program to raise 10 million VND to donate books and gifts to children at Binh Thanh Primary School (Cao Phong, Hoa Binh); coordinating with Blue Dragon organization to donate clothes and essential goods to more than 100 children and vulnerable people; coordinating with Good Neighbors organization to implement the "Collecting Knights" project - donating 10,000 pairs of socks from 6,000 plastic bottles to children in the highlands; organizing the "Sunshine 3: Bursting" liveshow and raising more than 50 million VND to build a library and playground for children at Na Nut Elementary School (Pun Pin, Mai Chau, Hoa Binh).

For Thu Tra, volunteer activities not only help people in need but also help herself. Each time she organizes projects, she focuses on learning and developing organizational skills, planning, fundraising, and most importantly, finding a way to "give them a fishing rod rather than a fish". Thu Tra also gave advice: "I hope that students who have never participated in volunteering will try to participate once. Really, bringing joy and happiness to others is very meaningful."

Social responsibility lies on the shoulders of youth

For Thu Tra, the disparity in society always makes her think and worry. She herself and many other young people have the advantage of growing up in a fulfilling and healthy environment, enjoying a good education. She hopes that young people who are as lucky as her have a responsibility to those who are less fortunate.

"Personally, I always respect everyone's way of life, but I believe that everyone, especially young people, needs to be responsible to society, to this community. We don't need to change the world, but we shouldn't be indifferent and ignore the existing problems, or even contribute to making them worse," Thu Tra said.

In addition to her position as President of GVC, Thu Tra also tried her hand at many positions in projects such as: Head of Finance Department of the "Love" project (cooperating with the Vietnam Women's Union); Head of Human Resources Department of the "Sunshine 2" project, Head of Organizing Committee of the "Warm" project (cooperating with "Nurturing Moc Chau Children"), raising more than 30 million VND from selling cakes and candles to support lunch for 16 young children in Lang Son for 1 year. It was from those activities that she built her reputation, built trust and was widely supported by students to become the President of the Student Council in the 2023-2024 academic year.

The long history of charity work is also valuable material for her to put into her personal essay sent to universities. In just 500 - 1000 words, Thu Tra's essay shows her passion for reading, constantly learning, valuing social responsibility and community service spirit.

Thu Tra emphasized that her application is just a normal application, without national prizes, without sky-high scores, but it is the close connection between the factors to show a picture with 100% personal image from personality, passion, ideals as well as the value brought to the community that helped her win a valuable scholarship.

"Studying in the Global Citizenship Bilingual System, I am taught by valuable and respectable teachers. The students in the class are all very good, so I have to push myself to try harder. Through subjects in the Global Citizenship Bilingual program such as Community Service, Business, IELTS..., I have accumulated a lot of interesting knowledge; have the opportunity to study and experience in many places such as the United Nations Green Building, Good Neighbors.... With the foundations at Greenfield School, I believe I will be more vững vàng on the upcoming journey," Thu Tra shared.

Commenting on her student, Ms. Ngo Huong Thom - Homeroom Teacher of class 12G2 used 5 keywords: "decisive", "ambitious", "responsible", "harmonious" and "persistent". According to Ms. Thom, Thu Tra always brings a sense of security to everyone because she always chooses to stand behind to "lead" and handle any incidents that may occur in a flexible and responsible manner. "Hearing that she won scholarships from 2 universities, I was extremely touched to witness her journey overcoming many difficulties with her extraordinary efforts. I hope that she can promote her strengths and learn more in the future."