Scholarship / I dealt with gender discrimination while growing up in my traditional Vietnamese family. [3]

#4: Reflect on a time when you challenged a believe or idea, what prompted you to act?

I dealt with gender discrimination while growing up in my traditional Vietnamese family. No matter what have I done, I was judged by other male members.

This discrimination started when I was born being a girl. My mother gave birth to my sister first and on the second kid, my family expected that I was a boy. Unfortunately, I'm not. So my family became the only family who has 2 girls when others have at least one boy as their child. The way they looked at our family was so scornful that sometimes I feel ashamed about myself. No matter how hard I tried to show them the sexism, it was ignored. With them, girls couldn't do anything for her family, when they grow up, they just get married and give them all to their husband.

At family meals, the women served the men. It was frustrating because no matter how much I was interested in or contributing to a conversation, I'd have to serve the food, or clear the table, or set the table, or do the dishes. My male cousins were never asked to help, which make me feel offensive.

The struggle also came from my father; he always thinks he is the dominator of the house and every decision must be made by him, even when they are wrong, or right. I feel like I'm not being listened, and he also think that I couldn't do anything or become successful. However, I didn't listen to him, I tried my best to show that even being a girl, I still can do a good job even better than the boys in my family. Therefore, I passed the exam to get into a gifted school but the harder I try, the more he wants from me. All the things that I have done are not being appreciated and even worse, he doesn't spare a penny for my study just because I'm a girl.

Sometimes, I feel so invisible in my house, I do not have my own voice, no one listens to me. Every time I go back home from school, I am so stressful with tasks and works that I really want to share to other members in my family but no one is there for me, for a girl. I have been so hurting lately, but whenever I am out, I put on a mask, a mask with a big smile and a happy face, to show that I'm fine with everything, especially not appreciated for being a girl. I really need an escape, I want to go abroad to study, to prove that I could do better than other boys; also, I want to have a voice, to be heard.

Some people asked me whether I would change my decision again, get married and do the things that girls should do, but the answer will be a no, and forever a no. I'm proud of being myself- a girl, I've gone so far that I do not want to give up to find another boy as a place to depend on. Even though I'm not a guy, I least I know that I'm dependent, and I have my own decision, and one day, my decision will become appreciated.

Scholarship / It is 6 o'clock in the morning of 2026... [4]

A typical day of your life in the year of 2026

It is 6 o'clock in the morning now, while looking at the clock I noticed that time has passed by so fast. I have spent 12 hours working on a new project for my masters thesis. I decided to keep on working but my body feels very worn out which leads me to believe that I should take a small break right now.

This break starts with a bowl of Pho, the best choice for me to keep my energy and motivation high. As I kept on eating, I started thinking about my hometown.

I am a 25 years old girl now. After graduating from university, I decided to move to New York City to continue my graduate studies. My goal is to make a new approach in Vietnam scientific field.

For many years, Vietnam is still in a scientifically backward state. In my opinion, this is potentially because scientists are not being appreciated and the younger generation cannot approach it completely due to the relegation and red tape in our academic syllabus. I want to start a project and some orientations to enable students mainly focused on students who are at the age of 16 to work in a laboratory, experimenting with some tentations and see how effective they are to our life's. Practical experiments in the lab differs vastly from the theory lessons in vietnamese academic books which is unrelated to real life.

When I work in a laboratory, I feel completely different, which effect my attitudes a lot. I live slower, think twice, and was able to grow mature. The old me used to live so quickly that sometimes I missed out on a lot of things which could potentially be important. Science helped me find myself, control things around, and allow me to find my limits, my two opposite sides- the aggressive one and the peaceful one. Where my life is just made of paradox where I could pursue my goal or be passive and allow things to happen in a more naturally setting. I want to show Vietnamese students my own experiences, to show them how wonderful science is.

Looking at the clock, it's 8 o'clock in the morning now, I have to get back to work immediately or else I won't finish it in time. I intend to keep working all day. I decide to go outside to grab some food and drinks. Manhattan in the morning is still so busy and full of chaos at the moment. In comparison, my life in the lab is more quiet and peaceful. When I look at the bright sky today, I notice that it is such a beautiful day to start with a hot cup of latte. It is undeniably a waste of time to spend my entire day in the lab today. However, it is a decision I have made with my life to pursue a goal that I have to complete and in some sense I find happiness in my work, in the field of science where scientific advancement could potentially lead to a better future. I believe that by leading by example, the future generation of Vietnamese kids could potentially think and live that way as well, for the better and advancement of Vietnam's future.