Growing up in a divorced family since an early age, Thao refused to conform to the stereotype attached to children of divorced parents and set her heart on defining her existence through volunteerism and study.
Thao has been an active volunteer for Sugar Vietnam, an NPO providing welfare for underprivileged children in local shelters, for more than six years.
Her work is highly appreciated by the President of Sugar Vietnam Mr Doan Thai Thien Loc.
“Thao is one of the most devoted, compassionate and resourceful people that I’ve had the chance to work with during my volunteer work,” Mr Loc said.
“Being a leader of the Big Summer Trip project, she had the responsibility to organise a six-day trip of outdoor activities for three different shelters with the participation of fifteen Vietnamese and fifteen Singaporean volunteers.
“Thao always focuses on bringing children valuable experiences and building connection between the volunteers and children despite language barriers.”
Being a recipient of the Academic Achievement for Current Students Scholarship in 2019, Thao showed a rare resilience, especially when taking double majors.
“Her learning journey for the Japanese language was uneasy as Thao did not have much exposure to the language community,” RMIT School of Communication & Design senior lecturer Eriko Yamato recalled.
“At the start of the courses, she was not always the best student in the Japanese language classes in terms of her Japanese proficiency.
“However, her emotional intelligence turned the challenging learning condition into an effective one.
“Her critical analytical engagement and argumentation in the course assessments were consistently outstanding.”
Thao had her article published in Vinaboo Magazine, a magazine for Japanese expatriates, to narrate her journey of studying Japanese at RMIT Vietnam, led the organising committee for the International Translation Day workshop, and was a valuable Languages Program Tutor at RMIT Student Academic Success.