Dr Phuong Nguyen and her lifelong pursuit of helping others

Dr Phuong Nguyen and her lifelong pursuit of helping others

From working with the United Nations to teaching in India, Dr. Phuong Nguyen’s career path has followed the simple mantra to help others and live a sustainable life. Now a lecturer in Design Thinking for Business, check out this article on Dr. Nguyen’s educational journey to RMIT!

From the beginning of her educational journey, Dr. Phuong Nguyen revolved her choices and pathways around a desire and drive to help others. 

After graduating from FTU University, she was able to land a job at the United Nations, working for a humanitarian resettlement program. Although a fulfilling role, the work itself was not challenging enough and Dr. Nguyen wished to uplift her management skills and knowledge further. She decided to take a master’s degree at Northampton University, where she eventually was awarded ‘Student of the Year’ thanks to her charity work. 

After a brief stint working with the United Nations again, this time in the U.K, Dr. Nguyen felt the need to challenge herself, and thus undertook a PhD. She was awarded with a scholarship from the Japanese government to complete a PhD in Thailand, focused on women, work and migration. 

While working on her thesis, Dr. Nguyen found that her love for helping others coincided with a love and passion for teaching.  

Dr Phuong Nguyen, RMIT Vietnam lecturer Dr Phuong Nguyen, RMIT Vietnam lecturer

Moving to India, Dr. Nguyen became an Assistant Professor at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence in Delhi NCR, and taught courses on Business Strategy and Sustainability. “Considering that I have a natural inclination for sustainability, helping society and have applied sustainability practices to my daily life for years, running university classes on these topics were second nature for me,” Dr. Nguyen recollects. 

Now a lecturer for the Design Thinking for Business course at RMIT Vietnam, Dr. Nguyen reflects on her role within the classroom. “I call myself a facilitator, not a lecturer. One analogy I like to use is that my students are swimming in the ocean – they know how to swim, but do not know the direction. Design Thinking for Business is like a lighthouse in the distance and as a facilitator, I demonstrate the best swimming technique to get to the lighthouse.”

Dr. Nguyen brings her experience working in the not-for-profit sector to the course as well, as she sees several correlations between humanitarian work and the principles of the Design Thinking methodology. “Design Thinking stresses that you truly understand your customer, their pain points and what they want,” Dr. Nguyen states. “As a UN case worker, I visited detention centers, interviewed and spoke with illegal migrants. I spent months living in villages of returned migrant workers. In doing so I learned how to empathise with their plight, much like someone in marketing must empathise with their customer or target base. I tell my class that you cannot just send a survey to people or just invite them to talk online. You must go and be with them in their environment. Only then will you develop a deep understanding.”

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