For Kim, one of her proudest achievements can be measured in a family celebration.

After nearly 12 years, her mother was finally able to afford to return home for a “real Tet,” Vietnam’s Lunar New Year and its most important traditional family celebration.

For years, Kim’s family had struggled financially. Her mother had moved to Da Lat for work, and their debt grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually, Kim was able to pay off her mother’s debt.

“She kept texting and calling me, full of excitement and happiness,” Kim remembers, because she was finally going home to celebrate Tet with her family.

The moment marked how far Kim and her family had come. But the path to that moment had begun years earlier, when Kim made a decision that would reshape her future: to return to school.

A decision to begin again

Kim was in seventh grade when her father died.

At the time, her older sister was in college, her younger sister had just started secondary school, and Kim was receiving treatment for asthma. The family also carried significant debt. Her mother sold sticky rice on the street, but her income was not enough to cover their expenses.

Kim decided to leave school and work.

In the mornings, she served customers at a pho shop. At lunchtime, she washed dishes. In the afternoons, she worked at a noodle shop, and sometimes she sold lottery tickets on the street.

As she worked, Kim began thinking about where her own life might lead. She saw other young people around her struggling to find stable employment. She thought about the people she saw building more secure lives and noticed something many of them had in common: education.

She remembered her old school. She remembered her dream of becoming a psychologist.

And she began asking herself a question:

“What would my life—and my family’s life—look like if I had a stable job with a medium or high income?”

That question became part of her motivation to go back.

Returning to school did not mean Kim could stop working. From grades eight through ten, she went to school during the day and worked at a milk tea shop until 11 p.m. Because of her asthma, she later shifted to tutoring. By grade 12, as she prepared for university, she was tutoring and working at the milk tea shop again.

She kept going.

Finding support and becoming a source of it

During university, Kim began looking for a scholarship to help support her family. Her mother’s work had become unstable during the pandemic, and Kim’s income from tutoring was no longer enough.

She applied for the Le So Memorial Scholarship of Excellence, or LSMSE, one of Sunflower Mission’s scholarship programs.

Kim still remembers her interview and the conversations that followed. At one LSMSE social gathering, she spoke openly about experiences and feelings she had never shared with anyone before.

That experience changed something for her.

“It led me to make an important decision: I wanted to become a source of support for others and give back to LSMSE.”

Today, Kim is a Risk Management Senior Officer at TechComBank and also serves as an LSMSE team leader. She supports younger members as they navigate challenges in their studies and in their lives.

One of those students is Thang.

A different definition of success

Thang grew up in Can Tho City in a family that strongly believed in education.

Just before he entered university, however, his mother unexpectedly lost her stable employment. At the same time, his family was helping a relative pay for urgent medical treatment.

After completing his university entrance exams, Thang spent the summer working long hours. Knowing his family could not afford his tuition, he seriously considered taking a gap year or assuming significant debt.

Then he received an LSMSE scholarship.

The scholarship relieved the immediate pressure of tuition. Through LSMSE, Thang also became part of a community of mentors and senior students. He began participating in extracurricular activities, sports, and community service, while also taking on leadership roles himself.

But for a time, he carried another kind of pressure.

Surrounded by academically accomplished peers, Thang wondered whether he was supposed to become the top student in his major.

He asked Kim.

“I don’t see becoming the top student as the final goal,” she told him. “What I truly hope is that your life will become better and more stable.”

The conversation changed how Thang thought about achievement.

Now completing his Finance and Banking degree at Can Tho University, he has also served as president of Cho Em Đến Trường, or “Give Me a Chance to Go to School.” Working with a team of volunteers, Thang helped coordinate scholarships, health insurance, school supplies and other necessities for children in communities across the Mekong Delta. His team also built community playgrounds and installed streetlights in rural villages.

On one project visit, a young boy held Thang’s hand and told him:

“When I grow up, I want to become a scientist and come back to develop my hometown.”

For Thang, the moment captured something he had come to understand through his own experience: the opportunity one young person receives can create new opportunities for others.

“Success is no longer about the titles I achieve,” he says. “It is about building a better life, giving my family peace of mind, and creating new opportunities for others—just as others once created opportunities for me.”

Education that keeps moving forward

Sunflower Mission works alongside communities in Vietnam to expand access to education through school construction and scholarships.

Its scholarship programs support students from primary school through university. The LSMSE program that brought Kim and Thang together provides full tuition to high-achieving university students while emphasizing both academic excellence and character.

Mona Foundation supports this locally led work as a long-term partner. During Mona and Sunflower Mission’s 17 years of partnership, we have funded 6,140 Sunflower Mission scholarships for K–12, college, and medical students. As of 2025, 1,600 students were being educated annually across 11 Mona-funded Sunflower Mission schools.

The numbers offer one measure of the partnership. Kim’s story reveals another.

Today, after helping her mother come home for Tet, Kim is focused on what comes next.

Her younger sister left school in ninth grade and now works during the day at a fruit shop. In the evenings, she studies English. Her dream is to study graphic design, and Kim is encouraging her as she takes steps toward that goal.

Kim has not forgotten her own childhood dream, either.

She studied International Business because she believed it offered stronger employment opportunities and would allow her to support her family first. When her family’s situation is stable, she plans to pursue another goal: studying psychology and becoming a psychologist.

“Studying is not the fastest or easiest way to succeed,” Kim says. “But for me, success simply means changing my life and my family’s life.”

Years ago, Kim returned to school because she began imagining what education might make possible for her family.

Today, her mother has returned home for Tet. Her sister is studying in the evenings toward a future of her own. Kim is still pursuing her own ambitions. And through her leadership with LSMSE, she is supporting students like Thang, who in turn is creating opportunities for younger students in his community.



What began with Kim’s decision to return to school continues moving outward, through her family, from one student to another, and through the opportunities they are creating for others.