Twenty Years After Her Scholarship, Thao Now Leads Culture for a Workforce of 50,000
At Masan, one of Vietnam’s largest companies, Thao, now in her mid-thirties, leads the work of connecting and building the working culture of more than 50,000 employees across eleven member companies nationwide. Over more than thirteen years in human resources, she has built her career across both global multinationals like Cargill and Heineken and one of Vietnam’s own corporate powerhouses.
Thao handles her busy schedule with ease and confidence, yet there was a time she could never have pictured the life she has today.
Thao (left) alongside her colleagues at work today
Thao was twelve when a financial crisis upended her family’s stable life.She still remembers one especially hard moment, when she heard her father say, “Just let them all leave school.” It was frightening, but she also understood the pressure her family was under. Still, it made her hold onto her own education even more tightly.
At fourteen, in the eighth grade, Thao received a scholarship of $300 a year from our partner, Saigon Children’s Charity, which provided the support needed to keep her in school and enable her family to stay solvent while Thao completed her education.
“What stayed with me most was the feeling of being trusted, of being given a boost, and having a little more reason to try harder each year,” she reflects.
The support carried Thao all the way through university, where she studied Economics and Public Management at the University of Economics and Law. Tuition then was modest, so our partner’s annual $600 scholarship could help cover her studies and still left a little over for meals and for extra computer and English classes.
The scholarship also opened a door for Thao to a community. Through the alumni network, she met mentors who guided her, talked things through with her, and helped her sharpen new skills, especially her English. Those conversations gave her the confidence she would later carry into her studies and her work.
From receiver to giver
More than twenty years after that first scholarship, last March, Thao returned to our partner’s events as an alumna, both to look back on her own journey and to share it, encouraging the students walking the road she once walked and reminding them what is possible.
Thao at a graduation celebration for scholarship students, now as an alumna
“Don’t compare yourself to other people,” she says. “Comparing yourself to who you were yesterday is enough. As long as something moves forward a little each year, that’s a good year.”
Thao has built a life for herself that once seemed out of reach. Her education has been the foundation, laid piece by piece. The ability to complete her studies and the support from the Saigon Children community have empowered her to seize each opportunity and keep going.
