VIETABROADER STUDY ABROAD CONFERENCE HA NOI 2013

EXECUTIVE REPORT

Press Conference Day – June 13, 2013 Icebreaking Day – July 14, 2013 Conference Day – July 21, 2013

Executive Summary

This Executive Report is a summary of the program and an analysis of the evaluations of the three biggest VietAbroader events this summer: Press Conference Day (13/6), Icebreaking Day (14/7), and Conference Day (21/7). The summaries included in the report were written by the members of Program Team, with the enthusiastic help from the conference’s guests - Guest speakers and Discussion Leaders - of the three big events. With the Evaluation of Performance section of the Icebreaking Day and Conference Day (there is no evaluation for the Press Conference Day) in the report, all the statistics and feedbacks were collected from the evaluation forms on paper and online completed by participants of the two events. All the numbers, charts, and graphs can be found in the Appendices of the report. Moreover, results founded from the Evaluation of Performance show that majority of the attendees of the Icebreaking Day and Conference Day is very pleased and gave positive feedbacks about the program’s content. In addition to that, invited guests, volunteers, and Organizing Team also received many praises about their friendliness, enthusiasm, and professionalism. In the process of collecting data and writing the report, Organizing Team also had a few problems such as not having 100% of the attendees doing the evaluation forms, and therefore the Evaluation of Performance cannot accurately give a good overview on the good and bad points of the Icebreaking Day and Conference day. Furthermore, Organizing Team also did not receive any evaluation forms from the parents, and therefore could not analyze and comment about the information session for parents in the Conference Day. Even though the statistics collected were not as many as expected, but Organizing Team also received many great ideas and feedbacks from the participants, such as shortening the time of the Conference Day’s morning session, or continuing to hold the Icebreaking Day and put in more fun activities. With all the changes made in the aim and program of this year’s events, once again VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi has proved its success through the praises and feedbacks. The Organizing Team hopes that this Executive Report will bring to the readers a deeper look at this year’s conference, and VietAbroader always welcomes new ideas and suggestions to improve the program of next year’s conference.

Table of Contents

1 1. ABOUT VIETABROADER

2 2. FOREWORD

3 3. BACKGROUND AND AIM

4 4. HIGHLIGHTS

4 Icebreaking Day

5 Icebreaking Day Booklet

6 Room Rotation Model

7 Essay Information Session

8 Mentor-Mentee Program

9 Expansion of College Fair

10 5. AGENDA

14 6. PROGRAM SUMMARY

14 Press Conference Day

18 Icebreaking Day

22 Conference Day

41 7. DEMOGRAPHICS OF DELEGATES

48 8. EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE

48 Icebreaking Day

50 Conference Day

59 8. LOCATIONS

60 10. PROMOTION THROUGH MEDIA

63 11. OUR PEOPLE

66 12. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

68 13. APPENDICES

68 Survey – Why U.S.?

75 Icebreaking Day’s Evaluation

80 Conference Day’s Evaluation

87 College Fair Map

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1. About VietAbroader

VietAbroader, founded and established in 2004, is a non-profit organization run entirely by Vietnamese students with the mission of empowering Vietnamese youth to contribute to the sustainable development of Vietnam. Through educational and professional programs, VietAbroader wants to equip Vietnamese youth with knowledge and a support network for their academic and professional developments. Recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in 2007 and officially registered in the state of New York in 2008, VietAbroader comprises Vietnamese students of the highest caliber from around the world, who have demonstrated the greatest potential for contribution to Vietnam. With the opportunity, extensive network of students, experience and resources, VietAbroader has become a bridge between the Vietnamese youth with other young people in the world, and between the Vietnamese economy and the world’s economy. The current 30,000 VietAbroader members are people who have been, and are studying in over 100 universities and working in more than 20 U.S. companies. Out of all activities created by VietAbroader, VietAbroader Study Abroad Conference is one of the largest in scale. The first conference was initiated in 2005, with the aim of providing Vietnamese students with training and guidance to encourage them to study abroad, primarily in the United States. The event includes a morning session, which provides attendees with in-depth knowledge about the education in the U.S, and a school fair of more than 80 colleges in the U.S., where students can meet colleges’ representatives to ascertain school facts and scholarship programs. This year, the conference was held on July 20, 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City and July 21, 2013 in Hanoi.

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2. Foreword

Ton Nu Thuy Anh Conference Chair 2013 in Ha Noi On behalf of the VietAbroader Conference Staff

We are pleased to announce the publication of this report about VietAbroader Study Abroad Conference 2013 in Ha Noi. Organized for the eighth time, VietAbroader Conference has always striven to improve each year in order to meet students’ and parents’ needs to learn more about the process of studying abroad. With our desire to provide accurate and unbiased information, our Conference Organizing

Team has undertaken changes based on aspects of studying abroad that concern students in Ha Noi. With the changes we have made this year, we sincerely hope you had the best possible experience coming to our conference.

We could not have reached this day alone. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sepcial gratitude. Firstly, to all of our attendees: you are what motivates us to make this conference the best it can be. We would also like to thank our sponsors, partners as well as the VietAbroader circle of friends, for your tremendous support that has made this event possible. Withour your support and encouragement, VietAbroader Conference could not have completed our mission of helping Vietnamnese youth to achieve their dreams of studying abroad, and passing the torch of passion to empower the youth of tomorrow.

With this report, we hope to highlight the results of the changes applied to this year’s conference. We also look forward to hearing your thoughts on this year’s conference and suggestions for the coming years. Once again, thank you very much for your interest in VietAbroader Study Abroad Conference.

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3. Background and Aim

In recent years, the vision of an education abroad has attracted students and parents in Vietnam. In the current social context, where studying abroad seems to become a trend and with many emerging educational services promising to guide students from A to Z in the application process, there is no shortage of options. However, not every source of information provided is reliable.

Taking those points into consideration, VietAbroader Conference was established to help clear the myths when it comes to studying abroad. Besides supporting students from A to Z, VietAbroader Conference also encourages our participants to express their personalities to the college admission committees and try to understand aspects of themselves as citizens in modern society. Therefore, we believe it is most important to not only create a perfect application package, but also to explore the core values that define each student. Once our participants have gone through this process, we believe that they will find the college environment that fits their characters as well as learning skills that will help them to succeed, not only in colleges but also in the future.

For the “Why U.S.” conference theme this year, we decided to put the purpose of studying abroad as the main focus. In the past, VietAbroader has always been known for empowering Vietnamese youth by “passing the torch” of success to them and creating a suitable environment to nourish the Vietnamese students’ passion. As much as we try to maintain this tradition, we also realize that what some Vietnamese students lack is not passion; rather, it is understanding of whether studying abroad is the right decision. Many applicants we know chose to study abroad simply because everyone around them did so. Others did it because of their parental wishes or out of a need for respect and a reputation.

Hence, besides sharing experiences on the college application process and college life, VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Hanoi aims to provide unbiased and diverse views on the U.S. education for students as well as parents. With the theme “Why U.S.,” our organizing team hopes to further accomplish VietAbroader’s mission of empowering Vietnamese youth.

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4. Highlights

Highlights of VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Hanoi: 1. Icebreaking Day 2. Icebreaking Day Booklet 3. Room Rotation Model 4. Essay Information Session 5. Mentor-Mentee Program 6. Expansion of College Fair

ICEBREAKING DAY

Besides the main Conference Day held on July 21, for the first time VietAbroader Study Abroad Conference in Hanoi also had Icebreaking Day that took place on July 14. Before constructing the main agenda of Conference Day, Program Team conducted a survey to test and see the amount of basic knowledge about the U.S. higher education from students (in Ha Noi) who desire to study in the United States. The results received showed that majority of the students already knew very well about the education and the processes to apply to study in the United States. Therefore, the Program Team decided not to create an event just to help students gain basic knowledge about the American education, but instead to establish a completely new and different event that would help participants become more comfortable and confident when attending the main Conference Day. Icebreaking Day was a collective activity that took place outdoors at the Old Quarter area, and just for students admitted to the Conference Day this year. During the process of building the content for this event, Program Team always put the main goal of increasing the excitement of the conference’s participants and helping them revise basic knowledge about the U.S. higher education on top. In addition, the special guests, also known as team leader, are also guests of the Conference Day. They are outstanding students who are currently studying at top universities and colleges in the United States, such as Brandeis University, Lehigh University, Bates College,…

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ICEBREAKING DAY BOOKLET

VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi marked a new change in the booklet compared to the previous conferences’. For this first time, VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi had an additional event of Icebreaking Day with the aim of providing basic information about U.S. higher education and helping the participants get along with each other before the main Conference Day. Therefore, besides providing personal information about all invited guests of the main Conference Day through the Conference Day’s booklet, all attendees of Icebreaking Day will also receive the most general and basic information about studying abroad in the U.S. to prepare for the main conference through the Icebreaking Day booklet. The Icebreaking Day booklet included information about school selection, financial aid, standardize tests, tips on college application process, etc. Moreover, the booklet also provided useful recommendations and tips from college students who submitted successful applications to colleges and universities in the U.S. Organizing team hoped that when entering the Conference Day, all participants would be equipped with the required basic information about U.S. higher education so that they could be more prepared for the core knowledge that the guests will share.

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ROOM ROTATION MODEL Another highlight of this conference was the room rotation model. This was the core reason in creating a big difference in this year conference’s content. In the main Conference Day, after the opening ceremony with over 400 people attending in the main hall, all participants were divided into three groups, each with 80 people. In each group, students were divided into small groups of 10. With the rotation model, each group was to attend the three information session of three different topics: School selection, Application experience sharing, and Essay. At the same time, Organizing Team also prepared an information session for the parents, which happened at the main hall. After analyzing and evaluating the rotation model carefully, the Program Team realized instead of last year conference’s model, where all information were given out just in the main hall, this new model had many more benefits in assisting the program’s content. By dividing the attendees into small groups and moving to three smaller rooms, Program Team wanted to increase the concentration and comprehension of the provided information to make sure that core knowledge are given out in the most efficient way. Besides that, the model also emphasized on enhancing the interaction between discussion leaders, guest speakers, and participants. Finally, by having breaks inbetween information sessions before each rotation, the Organizing Team hoped to make the conference’s multiple sessions less boring and tiring.

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ESSAY INFORMATION SESSION

The Essay information session was a highlight as well as a part of the rotation model in this year’s conference (along with School selection and Application experience sharing). Realizing an increasing importance in the personal essay of the college application, as well as the lack of effectiveness in giving information to participants through powerpoint presentation, Program Team decided to change the content as well as way of presenting information in the Essay info session. This year, instead of having only two guest speakers presenting in front of 240 participants like last year, Program Team invited eight college students, who are currently studying in the U.S. and who have many experiences in analyzing and commenting on essays, to become discussion leaders of the Essay information session. Each group was to have one discussion leader with eight participants. All discussion leaders also shared their experiences and detailed suggestions to the attendees about the process of writing essays, such as: how to find a unique and personal idea to show the writer’s personality and thoughts, how to organize ideas in a unique and lively way,... instead of just sharing general information that can be found easily on internet. The most important part of this Essay session this year is the discussion leaders directly analyzing and editing essays that were written by the conference’s participants. With each discussion group, the Program Team picked out two potential essays that the participants had written in the Optional Essay section when applying for the conference. Together with the participants, the discussion leaders evaluated and gave comments on the good points and points that could be improved in each essay. Moreover, the discussion leaders also gave instructions on how to fix the common mistakes when writing the essay. The fact that everyone had the chance to read and give feedbacks together has helped recommendations and tips shared by the discussion leaders become more easily absorbed. In addition, questions included in the Optional Essay in the conference’s application were selected from the CommonApplication as well as from the admission application of top American institutions such as Dartmouth College, University of Chicago,... Through those questions, Program Team wanted to encourage participants to challenge themselves and practice their writing skills.

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MENTOR-MENTEE PROGRAM Mentor-Mentee is an annual program that only exists at VietAbroader Conference in Ha Noi. Established and started in VietAbroader Conference 2010 in Ha Noi, Mentor-Mentee program aims to assist potential students with the whole application process through one to one assistance. This year, six mentors - college students who have had successful U.S. college applications - will help six mentees - high school students who created great impressions to the Organizing Team through their determinations, well preparations, and abilities that they have shown through the conference’s application. With this one to one assistance that will last in many months - from the conference’s day until the Mentees finish their college applications - the Mentees will receive recommendations, stories of experiences from the Mentors about all the essential elements in the college application: from selecting schools, how to study efficiently for the standardized tests, to how to come up with ideas for writing personal and supplement essays,... The new change in the Mentor-Mentee Program of VietAbroader Conference in Hanoi this year is in the selection process of Mentees. If last year’s selection process was just to have Mentors read the applications of the Mentees to choose their partners, then this year, Program Team has organized to have the Mentors directly talk to the Mentees (either through phone calls or Skype), in order to help Mentor choose the Mentee who is compatible in personality and working style. In addition, Program Team also designated a few members to supervise and oversee the working progress of the Mentors and Mentees in order to give assistance when needed.

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EXPANSION OF COLLEGE FAIR

The afternoon session of the conference day always includes the college fair. The fair of this year was more upgraded and expanded than those of the previous years. Different from last year’s college fair, this year, the fair had a big increase in the number of colleges participated: 105 colleges and 7 sponsors compared to 85 colleges last year. To meet the requirement of the increasing number of participated institutions, the Organizing Team decided to use both main hall and the empty space right outside the main hall for the fair. The Organizing Team not only affirmed the great scale of the college fair by the Vietabroader Conference 2013 in Hanoi, but also expected to reduce the congestion in the main hall and the outside hall with nearly 1000 attendees. In addition, the colleges’ booths were also arranged by the geographic location of the United States. The colleges were divided into the following regions: Mid-Atlantic, Mid-West, New England, West, South, high schools, and sponsors. Due to the large increase in number of schools and attendees, college booths were divided into regions, and maps were given to everyone (Appendices, page 87) to assist them in finding schools and assessing the needed information more easily.

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5. Agenda

PRESS CONFERENCE DAY

14:00 – 14:10 Opening 14:10 – 14:15 About VietAbroader 14:15 – 14:35 About VietAbroader Study Abroad Conference 2013 in Hanoi 14:35 – 14:45 Q&A with Organizing Team 14:45 – 15:00 Tea Break 15:00 – 15:50 Q&A with Guest Speakers 15:50 – 16:00 Closing

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ICEBREAKING DAY

8:00 - 8:30 Check-in 8:30 - 8:50 Icebreaking games 8:50 - 9:00 Introducing rules 9:00 - 11:15 Eight challenges 11:15 - 11:25 Return to Ly Thai To statue 11:25 - 11:35 Final challenge 11:35 - 11:40 Photo-taking session 11:40 - 11:50 Evaluation of performance 11:50 - 12:00 Closing

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CONFERENCE DAY

*For participants of Conference Day Morning 7:00 – 8:00 Check-In 8:00 – 8:15 Opening: Welcoming Speech by Ha Duy (Co-President) and Ton Nu Thuy

Anh (Chair) 8:15 – 8:25 Speech by Michael Turner (American Embassy’s Ambassador) 8:25 – 8:35 Why US? 8:35 – 8:50 Break – Students move into three Information Sessions 8:50 – 11:10 Information Sessions Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Main Hall 8:50 – 9:30

School Selection Application Experience

Sharing

Essay

Discussion with Parents: Why

U.S.?

9:30 – 9:40

Break Break Break

9:40 – 10:20

Essay School Selection Application Experience

Sharing

10:20 – 10:30

Break Break Break

10:30 – 11:10 Application Experience

Sharing

Essay School Selection

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11:10 – 11:25 Break – Everyone moves back to Main Hall 11:25 – 12:05 College Life 12:05 – 12:25 VISA Application 12:25– 12:40 Sponsor’s Quizzes 12:40 – 12:50 Closing

*Open to public (not including participants of the conference) Room 1: 11:25 – 11:50 Meet the Admission Officers Workshop 1 11:50 – 11:55 Break 11:55 – 12:25 Edmonds Community College Info Session Room 2: 11:25 – 11:50 Meet the Admission Officers Workshop 2 11:50 – 11:55 Break 11:55 – 12:25 Lane Community College Info Session Room 3: 11:25 – 11:50 Meet the Admission Officers Workshop 3 11:50 – 11:55 Break 11:55 – 12:25 Drexel University Info Session

Afternoon Main Hall: 14:30 – 18:00 College Fair Room 1: 14:00 – 15:00 High Schools 15:10 – 16:10 Gap Year Room 2: 14:00 – 15:00 Community College 15:10 – 16:10 Mentor-Mentee Program

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6. Program Summary

PRESS CONFERENCE DAY

On June 13th 2013, VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi had a press conference with the participation of VietAbroader’s Organizing Team, four special guests, and more than 20 press. MC of the day, Tang Khanh Linh, started the event by introducing the program, starting with a brief information session on VietAbroader organization and an introduction of this year’s conference, following by a Q&A session with the four guest speakers who are students who have been admitted to top universities and colleges in America. Press Conference Day had the presence of the Organizing Team, including Ha Duy - Co-President or VietAbroader, Ton Nu Thuy Anh - Conference Chair, and Nguyen Cam Ly - Conference Program Manager. Besides members of the Organizing Team, there were also four guest speakers: Truong Thai An - Recipient of ASSIST Scholarship and a rising freshman at Brown University, one of the top eight universities in America. Dam Ngoc Kim Anh - freshman at University of Pennsylvania, Tran Viet Linh - student who got into 20 universities and colleges in America, and will become a first-year student at Washington and Lee University, and Bui Gia Khuyen - who received a full scholarship to study at Anglo Chinese School in Singapore, and will be starting his freshman year at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Starting the Press Conference Day, MC Tang Khanh Linh invited Ha Duy on stage to present

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about the formation, as well as accomplishments that VietAbroader has achieved since its first day. Duy opened his speech by introducing briefly about VietAbroader and its mission. Then, he talked about the organization’s other events, such as the Business Conference, Career Fair, Forum Webinar - a weekly online information session, VAPedia - official homepage providing information about U.S. higher education, and VietAbroader Community Grant - a funding program for community service projects in Viet Nam. Duy shared that, in the ranking list of countrires with the most number of students studying abroad in America, Viet Nam always come in 8th place - a fairly impressive record. With the effort of VietAbroader, its forum currently has more than 62 000 registered members. Every year, the organization also brings over 100 universities and colleges to Vietnamese students, and at the same time attracts more than 2000 participating parents and students. Through the introduction about the organization as well as its activities, Ha Duy hoped that he had presented clearly to the press about VietAbroader’s mission, activeness, creativity, as well as the vision. He hoped that the organization can continue to empower the Vietnamese youth, help the youth reach the global knowledge, and create the best opportunities for the young generations to contribute to the society. After the speech delivered by Ha duy, the program continued with an information session on VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi by Ton Nu Thuy Anh, and an introduction to the highlights of this year’s conference by Nguyen Cam Ly. As a student of Class of 2016 at Bard College, New York State, Ton Nu Thuy Anh was chosen to become Conference Chair of this year’s VietAbroader Conference in Ha Noi. Thuy Anh shared that, this year’s conference in Ha Noi will be held on July 21st at the International Convention Center, 11A Le Hong Phong street. The main conference will start from 8:00 to 12:50 in the morning. Then, the afternoon session will be divided into two parts. The first part is the college fair, which will start from 2:30 to 6 pm, and the second part will be the four information sessions, which will start from 2:00 to 4:10 pm. The number of expected attendees for the main conference in the morning is 240 students and 100 parents, and around 1000 people for the afternoon session. The application opens on June 3rd, and closes on July 3rd. The criteria for choosing potential candidates includes: showing of interest in the U.S. higher education and aspiration of wanting to study abroad, having a clear plan for future education, proof of English proficiency, joining a diverse number of extracurricular activities, and having potentials in the application process as well as education in America. Thuy Anh shared that, in May, Program Team conducted a survey in Ha Noi about factors that affect the students’ decisions of studying abroad. The results of the survey revealed the three

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biggest factors: great facilities and various research opportunities abroad, modern living and studying environment, and opportunities to find great jobs with stable and high salaries. Based on the information received from this survey, Program Team built the program of this year’s conference in order to meet the students’ and parents’ needs of exploring more about the education in America. After Thuy Anh’s Speech, this conference’s Program Manager - Nguyen Cam Ly presented the conference’s highlights. Every year, VietAbroader always strives to improve the content of the conference in order to make it better than before. With the endless effort given by the Organizing Team, VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Hanoi wants to become a new and fun experience for the attendees. Besides the main Conference Day happening on July 21st, for the first time ever there is also the Icebreaking Day on July 14th. This is an outdoor event for the admitted participants of the Conference Day. One of the biggest highlights of the conference is also the room rotation model, this is the core reason in creating a big difference for the conference. Ly ended her speech by going into details about the content of each information session in the conference, as well as the Mentor-Mentee Program.

The Q&A session with the four excellent students was highly anticipated by the press in the Press Conference Day. With their diverse experiences, the four guest speakers were all ready to clarify any misconceptions and concerns from the parents and the students in Ha Noi. Mentioning about a few misconceptions on the topic of studying abroad in America, Truong Thai An shared that, there are people who think that students study abroad in America in order to avoid taking the university’s entrance exams in Viet Nam. There can be certain cases when this is true, but this is not completely correct.

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An himself, and many of An’s friends, chose to study in America because they want to challenge themselves with a new living and studying environment that is completely different from that in Viet Nam. When he received the ASSIST scholarship to study one year of high school in America, An realized that he could fit in perfectly fine with the environment there, and decided that he has to return to the U.S. after graduation. Moreover, An also really likes the curriculum at his new university - Brown University, and wishes to have to chances to explore the culture and society in America. Continuing with the question about gap year and how to make use of it, Tran Viet Linh shared that even though he got accepted to a few good colleges and universities in America, however, after graduating from high school, Viet Linh could not really see the aim of studying abroad yet, and was also not very satisfied about the acceptance results. Therefore, during the one gap year, he spent his time on doing things that he wanted to do, and focused again on applying to other colleges in the U.S. The useful gap year helped Viet Linh to get into 20 universities and colleges, and he decided to attend Washington and Lee University with a full scholarship. Bui Gia Khuyen is a special case as he attended high school in Singapore, and then decided to apply for colleges in the U.S. He said that in the beginning he did not think about continuing his studies in America, but after researching carefully about the education there he realized that the liberal arts colleges in America do not make students choose a major right away, and allow students to spend their first two years on taking classes that they like to find their true passions. He felt very excited about this type of education, because he himself did not know what he wanted to study specifically yet, and therefore applied, and decided to enter Tufts University this fall. With the last guest - Dam Ngoc Kim Anh, MC Khanh Linh asked about the great achievements that Kim Anh has received, and if getting those achievements has always been an easy thing for Kim Anh? Kim Anh answer honestly that getting national awards, or even super high SAT scores was not easy for her at all. In order to get to where she is today, and getting admitted into a top university like University of Pennsylvania, Kim Anh had to invest a lot of effort and time into studying for standardized tests, maintaining a good GPA in class, and completing a good application to send to U.S. colleges. Kim Anh also emphasized that students have to be patient and have big dreams about studying abroad in order to really be successful in the pathway of an education abroad. The Press Conference Day ended with Organizing Team’s representatives and the four special guests giving recommendations and suggestions to students and parents who have great interests in the U.S. higher education.

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ICEBREAKING DAY

The Icebreaking Day of VietAbroader Conference in Hanoi took place at the areas around Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter Street on July 14th 2013.

The program began with the first 30 minutes of students checking-in with the Organizing Team to confirm their attendance. Organizing Team, volunteers, and all group leaders have arrived 30 minutes earlier to prepare for the opening. After that, from 8:30 to 8:50, attendees and group leaders played two icebreaking games. The first game, “I have never,” was played in small groups to help all individuals get to know each other more through unique introductions about themselves. Following that was the “Cheer” game, which encouraged all attendees, group leaders, volunteers, and Organizing Team to join. The goal of both games was to increase the interaction and friendliness between students and group leaders, as well as the excitement of Icebreaking Day. 10 minutes later, from 8:50 to 9:00, was when all team leaders introduced all game rules that the Organizing Team had created for the Icebreaking Day. A few of the rules included: “all members in the team should always stay together,” “each game location can only satisfy a certain number of teams, if that location already has enough teams, there are two options of waiting or going to another different location,” “everyone has to walk, no other transportation is allowed…” By having these types of rules, Organizing Team wanted to emphasize the safety of all players, and to make sure that everyone gets the chance to play all games. The most anticipated part of the program was the “Eight challenges.” In those eight challenges, there were seven challenges located at seven different locations, and an eating challenge, which were located at three different places. The seven challenges included: Everyone is right, Spreading leg to see questions, See photo guess place, Draw keyword, Throw milk box, Ask foreigner, and Blindfold and guess friends. With the Eating challenge, all teams could eat at one

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of the three restaurants: Xoi Yen at 35B Nguyen Huu Huan, Quan Bun at 14 Ta hien, or My Van Than at 9A Dinh Liet. The goals of the eight challenges were to let the participants revise all the basic information about U.S. higher education and the college application process, as well as to increase the interaction between all students and group leaders so that they could be more excited for the main Conference Day. Therefore, a few games were built based on the basic knowledge, while a few were created only for entertainment factor. All games were placed at different locations around the Hoan Kiem lake and inside the Old Quarter streets, and all teams had the freedom in deciding the orders of completing the challenges. Below are the brief descriptions of the games: 1. All is right: Each person in the group will hold a Right/Wrong sign, each time the game’s instructor will say out loud a question related to the topic of studying abroad in America, and each team player will have to answer by holding up the Right/Wrong sign. All players have to give the correct answer in order to gain one point. The team to answer 5 out of 10 questions correct will win; the winning team will receive an envelope with a clue in it. 2. Spreading leg to see questions: The game instructor will stand 15 meters away from the starting line, and all team players will have to spread their legs and connect their feets in order to see the question from far away. Then, the very last person (who should be the closest to the game instructor) can either read and answer the question right away, or discuss with the group to come up with one answer. The team only needs to answer one out of the three questions correct in order to receive the envelope with clue. 3. See photo guess place: In this challenge, the instructor will show a photo of a street, and in 20 minutes the team will have to find that street and take a photo of the team at that street. Then, the team will have to go back to show the photo to the instructor. If the street is correct, the team will receive an envelope with clue. 4. Draw keyword: This challenge requires participants’creative imaginations. To play this game, all members in the team have to stand in one line and face the same direction. The first person in line will be the only person to see the keyword. After drawing that keyword, that first member will have to show the second person standing infront. Everyone in the team will do the same thing until the last person standing in line will have to guess what the keyword is. Each team will have in total 2 minutes and 30 seconds starting from seeing the keyword until guessing the word. Each team will get to play three times, the team to guess two out of three keywords correct will win with an envelope with clue.

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5. Throw milk box: At the Throw milk box challenge, the team will have to finish drinking the milk box and throw it into a box that is three meters away. Each team can drink maximum 15 boxes; the team to have five boxes of milk thrown into the big box will win and receive an envelope with clue. 6. Ask foreigner: Ask foreigner requires the team to travel around the Old Quarter area to ask at least 10 foreigners to describe Ha Noi with one word. The foreigners will have to write onto the team’s paper the words to help the team gain one point. The team to have 10 different words on the paper will win and receive an envelope with clue. 7. Blindfold and guess friends: This challenge requires the team members to know each other’s name and everyone’s special characteristics. One member from the team will be chosen to be blindfolded, and he/she will be the one to guess the names of the members in the team. Each player will take turn to describe her/himself in one sentence, and the blindfolded person will have to guess who that is. If the blindfolded can guess at least five people, the team will win and receive an envelope with clue. 8. Eat: The teams can only choose one out of the three eating destinations after completing four challenges. This is the time for the team to rest, and for the team members to learn more about each other. After finishing the meals the teams will receive envelopes with clues. At 11:25, all teams, volunteers, and Organizing Team had to be back at the area behind Ly Thai To statue to play the last challenge. Even though it rained right at that moment, everyone was able to find a place to hide from the rain, and was still very excited to solve the last challenge. By using all the clues in the envelopes, and with the Organizing Team giving the final hint of “VietAbroader,” two out of eleven teams were able to find the right answer: “Passing the Torch.” After that, everyone was given the Evaluation form to fill out and Icebreaking Day booklet. To close Icebreaking Day, Organizing Team gave thank you cards to the volunteers and group leaders as tokens of appreciation. A few volunteers told the Organizing Team that they felt very happy to be able to join this event, and that next year they hope to have the same chance to help another fun event hosted by VietAbroader Conference. Even though Icebreaking Day had many obstacles such as preparation time, weather, but this event went on very smoothly and definitely succeeded in making the students feel more comfortable and excited for the main Conference Day.

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(one of the playing teams of the Icebreaking Day)

(students getting excited for the last challenge of the day)

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CONFERENCE DAY

School Selection

Guest speakers:

Dao Tung Anh - Illinois Wesleyan University ’15 Dam Ngoc Kim Anh - University of Pennsylvannia ’17

Discussion leaders:

Le Thu Hanh Trang - Bates College ’15 Nguyen Hoang Giang - Brandeis University ’16 Nguyen Thuy Anh - Trinity College ’16 Phan Le Hang Giang - Franklin and Marshall College ’16 Tran Anh Tung - Wabash College ’16 Luu Tran Nam Anh - Connecticut College ’17 Le Doan Van Chi - Macalester College ’17

In the information session of School selection, the two guest speakers, Dao Tung Anh and Dam Ngoc Kim Anh, with eight discussion leaders shared with the participants of the conference all the essential things to take into consideration when making a list of potential schools that suits the student’s ability and aspiration. Opening the presentation, Tung Anh and Kim Anh emphasized the three main elements that both

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of them thought to be the most important in selecting schools, which are: financial situation, studying environment, and college life. With the first element of financial situation, Tung Anh suggested that students should talk with their parents, and indicate the exact amount of money that the families can pay. Tung Anh said that most of the U.S. colleges use the need-aware system for admission, meaning that the financial ability of the family does have an effect on the admitting chance of the applicant. Therefore, he also suggested that students should be honest when indicating the financial abilities of their families. Next, Tung Anh continued to share about considering the studying environment when making a list of schools to apply. He recommended students should look at the colleges’ ranking from reliable sources such as the U.S. News College Ranking or Princeton Review to have a general view about the colleges’ qualities. Moreover, if students have already decided the majors that they want to pursue in college, Tung Anh also recommended students to ask if the schools being consiered have those major, the popularities of the majors, as well as other information about them. However, students should understand that ranking list is only available for reference and is not always completely accurate. Kim Anh also added that students should find out more about the college’s curriculum, as well as research opportunities for students, study-abroad program,... After that, Kim Anh presented about the third important element in school selection - college life. She shared that college is a place not only for studying, but also an environment where students will work and join activities throughout the four years, and therefore finding schools that suit the students’ personalities and interests are very essential. She suggested students to read the schools’ websites to research about their clubs/organizations, or any other events that match the students interests and passion. She also introduced a unique characteristic that only college students in America can experience: Greek Life. Greek Life includes fraternity (brotherhood) or sorority (sisterhood), it is the place where male or female students live together under one house and join fun and entertaining activities together. Kim Anh said that if the schools that the students intend to apply have Greek Life, then they should further research more about this characteristic and then make decisions about whether to enter or not.

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Besides the three elements mentioned above, the two guest speakers also mentioned other important elements in the process of school selection, such as school’s special requirements, the student body, or location and weather. Kim Anh shared that a few colleges have special admission requirements that if not researched carefully, students can miss out on those, such as SAT II, writing samples, or supplements. Tung Anh emphasized that student body is also very important when selecting schools. He recommended students to find the ratio of students coming from different countries, especially how many Vietnamese students there are to see if the school likes to admit Vietnamese students or not. Furthermore, studying at a college where there are many Vietnamese students can help student adjust to college life in the U.S. more easily, as well as find help when needed. Next, talking about the location and weather, Tung Anh said that students should really ask themselves about whether they really like busy, lively places like the cities, or peaceful and quiet places like in the rural areas, or near forests or the sea to really find their suitable schools. He also confirmed that, weather is very important that cannot be looked over when selecting school, because there are a few places in America like Minnesota or Main that are very cold, the harsh weather can cause health problems, and make it difficult to study and adjust to the new place. Continuing the presentation, Tung Anh and Kim Anh introduced the process of selecting schools according to their experiences. Tung Anh shared that for the first time, students should research carefully about the college’s information through sources such as college’s website or brochure, ranking list, review pages, college info session, or even just asking information from the college’s current students (especially Vietnamese students). Kim Anh also added that, students should explore strategic element in the application process, such as ratio of international student, average score of standardize test of admitted students, number of admitted Vietnamese students from the previous year, and out of those students how many had their financial-aid need met,... Both guest speakers recommended that students should research many schools, and finalize lists of 15 schools to apply to. The list should be divided into three categories: reach school - schools that the students really want to get into but the chance of getting in is not very high, match school - schools that the student is likely to get into, and safe school - schools that the students will definitely get admitted and meet the student’s full financial-aid need. Finishing the presentation, the two guest speakers gave the last few suggestions to the students about school selection. Tung Anh recommended students to choose goals that suit their abilities - do not expect way too much but also do not be too afraid, while Kim Anh suggested that the students should be completely sure that their chosen schools are the suitable places to study and live for four years.

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Application Experience Sharing

Discussion leaders:

Nguyen Ngoc Linh - Lehigh University ’15 Phan Manh Tung - Bucknell University ’16 Luu Bao Tin - New York University ’17 Nguyen Ngoc Minh - Mount Holyoke College ’17 Nguyen Chi Hieu - Dickinson College ’17 Le Khanh Ngan - Cornell University ’17 Nguyen A Len - Adelphi University ’17 Nguyen Sieu - Vassar College ’17

The Application experience sharing is the information session that requires the most amount of knowledge from the discussion leaders, because these leaders have to fully understand the process of applying to U.S. colleges, as well as to be able to share experiences and tips that they have learned through that application process. The content of this session is divided into five main parts: standardized tests, extracurricular activities, financial aid, letter of recommendation, and interview. All eight discussion leaders had 40 minutes to discuss and share their thoughts and experiences about those five parts with the conference’s participants. Starting with the topic of standardized test - SAT and TOEFL, the discussion leaders all shared

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that each college in America has different admission requirement, and therefore students need to find the specific standardized test requirements from the schools that they want to apply to. Most schools will require students to take the SAT test (Scholastics Assessment Test), or also known as SAT I (Reasoning Test). Besides that, for all international students in general, TOEFL is almost always required. Talking about the importance of SAT I and TOELF in the application, Phan Manh Tung explained that U.S. colleges use the scores from SAT I to test the students’ knowledge of writing skills, reading comprehension, critical thinking skills, and math skills. Moreover, the admission committee also wants to see the students’ abilities to answer questions under the pressure of time, such as reading long passages of diverse topics in a short amount of time and answering analytical questions after that. Tung also shared that, imagine that these SAT I questions are like the work and homework that students will have to do in college, if they can understand and finish those work, then they are ready to embrace the harder courses in college. With TOEFL, even though the importance of this test is not as high as SAT I’s, but the admission committee still emphasizes the students’ abilities of speaking, reading, and listening through the scores. The question on how to study, how to do each part of SAT, and how to get high SAT scores has always been asked by many students. To answer this question, Le Khanh Ngan said that each individual has a different way of studying, and students do not have to be geniuses in order to get high SAT scores. Sometimes getting that high score is also based on the way that the students take the test, and the way to apply a few tips and tricks to save the time of reading questions, and spending more time on actually analyzing and answering the question. The most important thing to remember, though, is to always practice. It is similar to learning math, once you have found the logic between the numbers, and never stop doing math exercises to practice the ability to recognize those logic, you will see that math is becoming easier to do. Nguyen Ngoc Linh shared that students should be careful and pay a lot of attention when taking the SAT I. He said that Math is not very difficult for Vietnamese students, they only need to check the answers carefully after finishing each part. With Critical Reading, the session considered as the hardest by many test takers, Linh suggested that students should recognize the different types of questions that usually appear in the test. One trick that he discovered by himself was that instead of reading the long passages first, he concentrates more on reading all the questions and analyzing what the questions are asking for, so that when it comes to skimming through the long passages he already knows what to find. With Writing, everyone has different writing styles, but the main thing to remember is to answer the essay question, and always have evidences to explain the main topic sentences. After that, all discussion leaders had 10 minutes to talk about the extracurricular activities in the application. Luu Bao Tin said that extracurricular activities is a very important element in the

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application. The list of activities does not always have to be community service activities, but all activities that the students have done at school and outside of school. They should be the events that contribute to the growth and exploration of the individual. Tin also added that, students should not think that writing out a long list of all activities that the students have participated in will always impress the admission officers. The main thing here is the quality of the activities, and not quantity. He told a story to the participants that by emphasizing on his one activity of playing the piano for a very long time, and really investing a lot of time into growing his passion, he had made his application more appealing, which helped him to stand out from other applicants. Applying for financial aid is also an important part of the application that students want to ask about when attending the VietAbroader Conference. When deciding to apply for financial aid, students should know that most colleges have different financial aid system, such as need-base, need-aware, need-blind, scholarships, and loans. Besides that, the financial aid package will also have other parts included, such as in need-base there is loan, or work-study. The discussion leaders also shared reliable sources to research about financial aid, such as College Board, the college’s website, VietAbroader forum, or even just talking to the current college students to ask for more information. Financial aid process also requires a lot of preparation. Forms such as family’s contribution, ISFAA, CoF, and CSS Profile are required from international students when applying. The Application experience sharing information session continued with the discussion leaders sharing about the role of recommendation letter and interview in the application process. Letter of recommendation has the advantage of allowing the admission officer to learn more about the personalities, as well as the special parts about the students. Nguyen Sieu recommended students to ask for letters from their teachers, let them write in Vietnamese first, and then students can translate those letters by themselves. Or students can also follow what Nguyen Ngoc Linh did, which was to ask a best friend to write about Ngoc Linh. Students should be responsible in asking for letters of recommendation from teachers or someone who knows the students very well early, and should invest into printing and sealing the letters in envelopes so that they can look professional when mailing to the admission officers. To end the discussion, the discussion leaders spent five minutes on giving tips and tell stories about interviewing. Interview is not a required part of the application process, because some interviews are only about promoting the colleges, while some are actually assessing the applicants. Nguyen Chi Hieu shared that no matter what the aim of the interview is, students should always try their best to leave the best impressions on the interviewer. Talking about tips on interviewing, Hieu said that first of all, students need to research carefully about the schools so that not only can they give meaningful answers, but can also ask different insightful questions. Students can prepare for the interview by listing out common questions that might be asked by

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the interviewer, as well as questions to ask back. During the interview, students should try to answer clearly, talk not too fast, and try to be comfortable with the interviewer. If interview face-to-face, the interviewee should also dress formally. After the interview, writing emails or sending thank you cards to the interviewer will help the students leave a good impression. Even though the discussion leaders only had 40 minutes to talk about all different aspects of the application process, they all have shared many great experiences and tips to the conference’s participants. They hoped that the information session have given the students a detailed overview about the U.S. college’s application process.

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Discussion with Parents: Why U.S.?

Guest speakers:

Pham Hai Nam – Brandeis University ’14 Tran Thu Ha – Messiah College ’13 Dao Thu Trang – Parent of Trinh Duc Minh (Harvard University ’14) và Trinh Duc

Duy (Colgate University ’2014)

Besides the goal of providing useful information to students who are intending to apply to U.S. colleges, VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi also wanted to share those with the parents - people who have great influence on the decision of letting the students study abroad in America. The information session for the parents has helped them to understand more about the U.S. higher education as well as things that they can do to assist their children. The two guest speakers, Tran Thu Ha and Pham Hai Nam, provided basic knowledge about the U.S. higher education, as well as steps that students need to take in order to prepare for the U.S. college application. The parents were given information such as types of colleges in America, financial aid, differences between regions in the U.S., standardized tests, and required forms to complete the application. Pham Hai Nam and Tran Thu Ha also gave the parents real examples from their own experiences: Tran Thu Ha studied high school in Foreign Language Specialized School in Hanoi, and then spent one year to prepare for the U.S. college application - also known as gap year; while Pham Hai Nam studied high school in America, and applied for college right away after graduation. Coming to the information session for parents, the two guest speakers of the conference also

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shared helpful and significant recommendations, such as the timelime of when the students should start studying for standardized tests, analyzing the elements that parents should consider when selecting the schools with their children, or always have plan B, C, or D to prepare for the worst case scenario when the students apply.

The third guest speaker of the information session was Mrs. Dao Nhu Trang, a parent of Trinh Duc Minh - a rising senior at Harvard University, and Trinh Duc Duy - a rising senior at Colgate University. Mrs. Dao Nhu Trang came to the conference to share with the parents the most realistic experiences that she has gained when assisted her two children apply for colleges in the U.S. Mrs. Trang shared that because the parents work for the government, it is impossible for the family to pay full tuition for Duc Minh and Duc Duy. Therefore, researching thoroughly about the college education, as well as about each of the schools that her two children wanted to apply to ask for scholarships was very important.

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Mrs. Trang also shared her family’s motto: “never force your children to follow any specific direction, but allow them to have freedom in choosing the ones that suit themselves and always believe in them.” During the time that Duc Minh and Duc Duy applied for scholarships in the U.S. colleges, Mrs. Trang and the rest of the family did not intervene the children’s processes of selecting schools, and only assisted them in filling out the required forms to complete the application. Through those sharings by Mrs. Trang, the two guest speakers Tran Thu Ha and Pham Hai Nam also agreed with the belief of always believing in the students and never force them to follow any particular paths. Program Team also dedicated 45 minutes to inviting the three speakers to join the Question and Answer session with parents at the conference. Concerns such as how to apply for scholarships or how to find schools that are suitable for their children are a few of the many popular topics that parents want to ask about. Besides that, parents who have children currently studying in U.S. colleges wanted to ask about if their children should study more than one major, and if that is too much work load to bear. Finally, closing the session, the three guests all agreed that “parents should let their children have freedom in choosing their own lives.”

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College Life Guest speakers:

Ton Tich Quang Minh - Washington and Lee University ’14 Pham Quang Minh - Lewis and Clark University ’14 Vu Anh Quan - Brandeis University ’14

One of the most anticipated and interesting talks at the VietAbroader Conference in Ha Noi this year was the session on College Life. The three guest speakers of the conference, Ton Tich Quang Minh, Pham Quang Minh, and Vu Anh Quan, came to share different, lively, and most realistic perspectives about college life in America.

Living and studying at three different places in America, the three guest speakers of this session in the conference brought to the students a diverse look at the life in this country. The first speaker - Pham Quang Minh, currently living and studying in Portland, Oregon - spent his high school years in Singapore and had one year of cultural exchange in France. Therefore, Minh always has a good impression on the clubs and sport activities in the U.S. He opened the

presentation about the information on clubs and sport activities in college, as well as his personal experiences on those areas. According to Quang Minh, the biggest difference between Viet Nam and America is that 90% of the students in Viet Nam play sports in school as a requirement, but 90% of the students in America play sports as personal interests, passion, and they simply play because they know the benefits of playing shorts. Therefore, Minh shared to the students that one of the ways to make new friends and fit into the new environment is to play sports in college. The college environment in America also create a lot of opportunities for students to join sport clubs. By playing sports, not only will students maintain good health and body shape (due to intense training sessions and strict eating diets of a few of the sport clubs and varsity teams in schools), but also let them make new great friends. However, not joining any sport teams does not mean that the life of any college student will be boring. The second guest speaker, Vu Anh Quan, shared to the students about artistic activities, as well as other clubs in college, such as filming club, modeling club, or ping pong,.. Quan also gave recommendations to the students: “you should join clubs and other events in your college

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because that is a huge chance for you to make new friends, learn about where they come from and their culture, as well as create opportunities to create new connections, and have fun after the stressful time of studying.” The next part of the information session, the third guest speaker - Ton Tich Quang Minh brought to the listeners interesting information and most realistic perspective on Greek Life. Minh himself is currently a part of the fraternity at his university of Washington and Lee, and based on his personal experience, he analyzed all the good points of joining the fraternity. By joining a fraternity, he became good friends with the other students in the group, learned about the American culture, had the chance to share about his culture, joined events created by the fraternity, expanded his connections and received internship opportunities. However, Quang Minh also shared that before deciding to join a fraternity or sorority club, the student needs to think carefully about the issue of money, time, and whether the student will be able to adjust to it or not. The decision to join Greek Life in the end really depends on the individual. About college life, all guest speakers shared their personal experiences: how to find a suitable college room in the dorm? For students who intend to live off-campus, what do they have to prepare? What is the difference between partying on- and off-campus? When leaving to a new country, the students will experience through many new things in the college life that they might never go through when living in Viet Nam. Therefore, the speakers of this session in the

conference not only shared experiences, but also gave suggestions to the students, such as: “stay focus and always think carefully before doing anything, as well as always respect the cultures of the people you are living with.” Living in different places, the guest speakers of the conference also brought to the students various thoughts and realistics examples about life in the cities as well as in rural areas. There will always be advantages and disadvantages at different areas, but knowing which one is suitable depends on the students themselves. Therefore, the guests also suggested that “students should research carefully about the school that they will be spending four years there before making the final decision.”

However, with the experiences of traveling to many places, Pham Quang Minh shared that:

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living and studying at a rural area does not mean that you will never have the chances to visit other places. In America, the most common transportation to travel around is cars, and students can save the cost of transportation by traveling to places together to meet new people and learn new things. Here, colleges also strive to create opportunities for their students to learn other cultures in another country through study abroad and exchange programs, and Pham Quang Minh recommended to the students that: “If given the chances, take it joyfully and leave to another country to explore, you will never regret anything!” Finally, another very important thing to consider is networking. Guest speaker Vu Anh Quang shared personal tips on how to expand connections effectively. To end the presentation, all guests gave a final last few words to the participants by saying that “whether the four years in college will be fun and memorable or not depends on the personal choices made by the students themselves.”

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Gap Year Guest speakers:

Tran Viet Linh - Washington and Lee University ’17 Vu Huy Giap - Bowdoin College’ 15

Gap year is starting to become a familiar term to the Vietnamese students in the past few years. The two guest speakers of the information session, Tran Viet Linh and Vu Huy Giap were invited to the conference to share information and their personal experiences about Gap year. Viet Linh started the session by defining Gap Year, which means that after graduating from high school, a few students choose to not go to college right away to spend one (or a few) year(s) doing service work, traveling, or preparing for the next application period (quoted from VAPedia). Viet Linh continued to explain why students take gap year. A few of them include to travel, to explore, to enjoy life by following self’s interests and passions, or to work to save money for college and to gain experiences, or even just to prepare more carefully for the upcoming application period. Besides thoses, a few choose to stay home for a certain amount of time instead of going to college right away sometimes can also be due to personal reasons such as health problems, or family issues. Vu Huy Giap continued the talk by introducing the application process for students who have taken or will take gap year(s). What is different about this process? The applying process is still similar to the normal application procedures, but in the Education section of the CommonApplication, students need to remember to tick the “Did/Will take gap year” in the

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Education Interruption part of the section. In addition, applicant will also have to write an essay explaining the aim, achievements, or any thing that the students have done in their gap year to share to the admission officers. Giap also shared his personal thoughts and experiences on the question of whether to take gap year or not. He both listed out the advantages and disadvantages of this. Starting with the advantages, when taking gap year, students can gain money when working, or can spend time on doing things that they like, or things that they have not had the chances to do so. Moreover, these works can help students learn more about themselves, and from there know what they want to do in the future. Other advantages of gap year include students gaining skills and life experiences before entering college, and having more time to prepare for their college applications. The results of all of those things will give students higher chances of getting admitted to colleges, and at the same time increase the chances of them succeeding at their institutions. However, gap year also has many disadvantages. One of the biggest limitations is that the advantages only work when students know how to spend their gap years effectively. Students can also go through a few pressures such as family pressure, the pressure of not studying anything,... all these can lead to stress. Furthermore, students can digress and lose their focus. Even though gap year can increase the chances of students getting admitted to colleges, but one of the disadvantages of this is that the admission officers’ expectations from these students will be much higher than usual. The result of these things is that not making use of gap year and spending it carelessly can have negative effects on the chances of students getting accepted to their desired universities and colleges. The information session on Gap year ended with Viet Linh and Giap sharing their personal stories and what they have done during their gap years in Viet Nam, as well as answering questions from the attendees of the session.

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Community College Guest speaker:

Tran Phuong Minh Trang - Edmonds Community College ’13

In recent years, Community College has become another familiar choice, besides the traditional choice of a 4-year college, for students who aspire to study abroad in America. In this information session in the afternoon of the conference, Tran Phuong Minh trang, a student at Edmonds Community College, presented about community college in general, as well as the application process, college life, and extracurricular activities at the college. Opening the presentation, Trang introduced the basic information about community college. She shared that, community colleges are public colleges, small in scales, and usually last for two years. After graduating from community colleges, students will be award Associate Degree, and can either choose to transfer to a 4-year institution to receive the Bachelor’s Degree, or go to work right away. Following that, Trang then analyzed the reasons that students should consider when choosing to study at a community college. She said that one of the benefits of studying at a community college is the cheap tuition price that is usually 50 to 70% less than a 4-year institution. She compared that in the recent year, tuition price at Edmonds Community College was around $9,200 for nine months, while the tuition fee at University of Washington - a 4-year public university in the state of Washington - for example, went up to around $30,000. Besides that, she also mentioned the number of small classes at the community college - averaging from 20 to 30 students in a class - which tremendously helps the students to communicate and get help more easily from the professors. Especially, she confirmed that students graduating from community college can go to work right away, which helps them to save time and money comparing to any other 4-year institutions. Trang continued her talk by clearing a few misconceptions about community college. With concerns about the qualityies of education at any community colleges, Trang emphasized that the curriculum at all community colleges are very similar to the first two years of any 4-year institutions. She also added that the processors at community colleges mostly have PhD degree just like professors at any 4-year colleges, and there are professors who teach at both community colleges and 4-year colleges at the same time. With a few questions about community colleges not giving financial aid to international students, Trang corrected that community colleges do give merit-based scholarship to international students, and in addition, students can also find paid-jobs on-campus, and can work up to 20 hours/week. She shared that, she herself is currently

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working for the International Student Services office at Edmonds Community College as a marketing assistant. After that, Trang introduced more about the clubs and organizing events at community colleges. She said that all community colleges also have sports team, artistic clubs, outing clubs, and especially community service events to help students blend into the student body in college, as well as the community outside of school. Furthermore, community colleges also have useful events for the students such as Transfer Fair - a place where students can learn more about how to transfer to a 4-year institution - or Internship fair - a place where students can find internship and job opportunities. Then, Trang talked more about the application process for any community colleges, and emphasized that the application is much more simpler than a 4-year college’s application: the students only need to fill out the forms, send in financial documentation, transcripts, and deposits. TOEFL, SAT scores, and essays are not required. At the end of the information session on Community College, Trang spent a few minutes to answer the questions from students as well as parents in the room, such as how to apply for scholarships at community colleges, ways to find jobs in school, ways to find housing, and how to adjust to the new life in America,... She also gave a few recommendations to the students who are intending to apply to community colleges.

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Mentor-Mentee Program Guest speaker:

Nguyen Viet Hoang - Clark University ’16 Mentor:

Doan Nguyet Linh - University of Washington ’13 Bach Hoang Phuc - Macalester College ’16 Quach Dang Tuan Nghia - Augustana College ’16 Nguyen Duong Ha Anh - Skidmore College ’16 Pham Quynh Chi - Dartmouth College ’17 Bui Gia Khuyen - Tufts University ’17

Mentor-Mentee is a unique program that only exists at VietAbroader Conference in Hanoi. The program aims to assist the students with their application processes in the method of one-to-one. In this year’s Mentor-Mentee program, six Mentors - college students currently studying in America - will be assisting six Mentees - high school students in the process of applying to U.S. colleges. In the afternoon session of the Conference Day, Program Team organized a meeting for the Mentors and Mentees. In this meeting, Nguyen Viet Hoang, Program Assistant Manager, introduced to all attendees about points to considering when working together in this program. Firstly, Hoang reminded that the role of a Mentor is to assist the Mentee in the application process by giving suggestions, sharing experiences, and answering all the concerns of the Mentee. However, Hoang also emphasized that Mentors should not be doing all the work for

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their Mentees, as this will make the Mentees become irresponsible and cannot fully understand their own thoughts and personalities when working on the applications. He also said that Mentees should be independent in preparing their own applications, and should not always rely on the help of their Mentees. Next, Hoang mentioned about ways for Mentors and Mentees to communicate. Based on the feedbacks given by Mentor-Mentee pairs in the last year’s program, Hoang recommended the Mentors to make use of the summer time in Viet Nam to directly meet and assist their Mentees as much as possible, because when they go back to America for their studies, they will become busy with their own work and therefore will have less time for their Mentees. Moreover, when the Mentors are in America, communication between Mentors and Mentees will be much more difficult due to the long distance as well as time difference. Therefore, Hoang also recommended a few other ways to the Mentor-Mentee, such as setting Skype appointments over the weekend, or creating to-do lists on Google Docs so that Mentors and Mentees can see their progress more conveniently. He also suggested the attendees to find their own suitable way of communicating with each other. At the end of the meeting, Hoang shared that Program Team will designate a member to supervise the Mentor-Mentee Program in order to give assistance when needed. The meeting ended with the Mentors exchanging their contact information and discussing more about the future working plans with their Mentees.

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7. Demographics of Delegates

PRESS CONFERENCE DAY Press 27 out of 41 invited press attended the Press Conference Day of VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Hanoi. List of the press attended the day: Ione, VTC Online, Dan Tri, Nhan Dan online, Doanh Nghiep va Thuong Mai, Dang Cong San Viet Nam, Nguoi Dua Tin, SVVN, Viet My Magazine, Gia Dinh va Tre Em,Giao Duc va Thoi Dai, Kinh Te va Do Thi, Thoi nay, Gia dinh va Xa hoi, Truyen hinh cap Ha Noi, VTC, VMG, Nhan dao va Doi Song, Tai chinh Viet Nam, Ngan Hang, VTC10, Tap chi Thanh tra, The gioi va Viet Nam, VTC1, Kinh te Viet Nam, and Hai Quan. Guests The four special guests invited to the Press Conference Day are students with excellent academic records and impressive extracurricular activities: Dam Ngoc Kim Anh University of Pennsylvania ’17 First place in National English Competition in grade 11 and grade 12 TOEFL score: 113/120 SAT score: 2320/2400 Got accepted to 11 top universities in the U.S. such as University of Pennsylvania,

Cornell University, Georgetown University, Brandeis University,… Truong Thai An Brown University ’17 Recipient of ASSIST Scholarship, a scholarship that is given to only five Vietnamese

students each year TOEFL score: 112/120 SAT score: 2230/2400 Fluent in English and Spanish Six years of piano at Ha Noi National Music Academy Third prize in National English Competition

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Bui Gia Khuyen Tufts University ’17 Full-scholarship at Anglo Chinese School Independent in Singapore since 10th grade SAT score: 2290/2400 Core member of Operation Smile Singapore

Tran Viet Linh Washington and Lee University ’17 Second prize in National Chemistry Competition in grade 12 Got accepted to 20 schools, one of them includes a full-scholarship at Washington and

Lee University

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ICEBREAKING DAY Attendees All 216 students admitted into the Conference Day were all invited to Icebreaking Day. Even though Icebreaking was an optional day for the students in the program this year, Delegate Team still picked out 107 students (50%) and encouraged them to attend this day. These 107 students were the students who did not pass the grade of 80% in the conference application’s quiz about the U.S. colleges’ application process. The rest of the other students still had the option to join the Icebreaking Day. Total number of students who joined Icebreaking Day: 83 (38%). Team leaders (Guests) 11 Team leaders are students currently studying at : Clark University, Dartmouth College, Franklin and Marshall College, University of Washington, Bryn Mawr College, Augustana College, Brandeis University, Lehigh University, and Bates College. Volunteers 17 Volunteers, who come from different high schools in Ha Noi, have enthusiastically helped out with this year’s Icebreaking Day.

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CONFERENCE DAY Participants

Total amount of

applications

Admitted Acceptance rate

Rate of attendance

Participants 638 216 33.9% 100%

Participants applied for the Mentor-Mentee Program

202 6 2.8% 100%

Age of participants: 15 and below (4.1%), 16 (55.0%), 17 (79.2%), 18 and above (31.5%) Geographical location: Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Ha Long, Ninh Binh, Ha Tinh, Hai Duong, Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, and Vinh. Participants’ highschools: Amsterdam Hanoi Highschool, Nguyen Trai, Kim Lien, Chu Van An, Marie Curie, Nguyen Hue, Viet Duc, Doan Thi Diem... Besides the participants who attended the main conference, Meet the Admission Workshop and Info Session with Drexel University, Edmonds Community College, and Lane Community College also had more than 200 people pre-registered. Moreover, the afternoon of the Conference Day also had over 1000 parents, students, and sponsors coming to the College Fair. In addition to that, the three info sessions: U.S. High school, Gap Year, and Community College and Transfer, had more than 400 people pre-registered. Guests Number of invited guests: 49 Special guests: Mr. Michael Turner, Mr. Zach Bailey, and Mr. Nguyen Hoang Giang from U.S. Embassy in Ha Noi. 14 Guest speakers are students currently studying at: Brandeis University, Messiah College, Bowdoin College, Washington and Lee University, University of Pennsylvania, Illinois

45

Wesleyan University, Church Farm School, Tufts University, Mahindra United World College of India, Lewis and Clark College, và Edmonds Community College. In addition, one of the guest speakers is a parent of two students currently studying at Harvard University and Colgate University. 24 Discussion leaders are students currently studying at: Wesleyan University, Washington University in St. Louis, Trinity College, Stanford University, Bryn Mawr College, Dartmouth College, University of Washington, Franklin and Marshall College, Wabash College, Macalester College, Brown University, Bates College, Connecticut College, Brandeis University, Vassar College, Bucknell University, Mount Holyoke College, Adelphi University, Cornell University, New York University, Lehigh University, and Dickinson College. Six mentors selected for the Mentor-Mentee Program are students currently studying at: Augustana College, Tufts University, Dartmouth College, University of Washington, Macalester College, and Skidmore College. Volunteers This year, the Conference has received a tremendous help from 34 volunteers, who are students currently studying at many different high schools in Ha Noi.

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College Fair Number of institutions represented: total of 104, with 100 universities and colleges, and 4 high schools. Number of school representatives: 129 List of universities and colleges:

Adelphi University Agnes Scott College Augsburg College Augustana College (Illinois) Bard College Bentley University Boston University Bowdoin College Brandeis University Brown University Bryn Mawr College Bucknell University California State University, Fresno Carleton College Carroll University Cascadia Community College Clark University Colby College Colby-Sawyer College Colgate University College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University Colorado State University Concordia College Connecticut College Cornell College Dartmouth College Denison University DePauw University Dickinson College Drexel University Duke University

Linfield College Loyola Marymount University Luther College Lycoming College Macalester College Marshall University Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University Mercyhurst University Messiah College Miami University- Ohio Middlebury College Mount Holyoke College New York University North Central College Ohio Wesleyan University Providence College Randolph College Ripon College Saint Anselm College Shoreline Community College Sierra College Skidmore College Smith College South Puget Sound Community College Southern Illinois University Stanford University Swarthmore College The Ohio State University The University of Texas at Dallas Trinity College (CT) Truman State University

47

Edmonds Community College Elizabethtown College Franklin & Marshall College Furman University George Washington University Georgia Institute of Technology Green River Community College Grinnell College Gustavus Adolphus College Harvard University Hendrix College Illinois Wesleyan University Ithaca College Juniata College Kansas State University Lafayette College Lake Forest College Lane Community College La Salle University Lehigh University Lewis & Clark College

Tufts University Union College University of Chicago University of Cincinnati University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign University of Miami University of Pennsylvania University of Washington University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Vanderbilt University Vassar College Villanova University Wabash College Washington and Lee University Washington University in St. Louis Wesleyan University Williams College Worcester Polytechnic Institute

List of high schools: ASSIST Program Cushing Academy Loomis Chaffee School UWC Program

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8. Evaluation of Performance

ICEBREAKING DAY

85 out of 216 students admitted to the Conference Day attended Icebreaking Day. 85 out of 85 students Icebreaking Day attendees completed the survey on paper to evaluate about this day (Appendices, page 75). The grading system includes: 1 (very bad), 2 (bad), 3 (neutral), 4 (good), 5 (very good) Overall Content

• Many students gave the scores of 5 and 4 when assessing the content of the games in the Icebreaking Day: All is right (68%), Spreading leg to see question (71%), Eat (82%), See photo guess place (74%), Draw keyword (76%), Throw milk box (61%), Ask foreigner (78%), Blindfold and guess friends (81%).

• There are certain games that are specially liked by the majority of the attendees: Eat (41%), Spreading leg to see question (15%), and Ask foreigner (14%).

• 50% of the people who answered the question about difficulty of the games said that all games were up to their expectations.

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Delivery of Basic Knowledge • 50% of the people who answered the question on the basic knowledge learned from

Icebreaking Day gave the scores of 5 and 4. Icebreaking Day’s Booklet

• 87% of the students expressed that the booklet for this day has helped them to learn more about all the important elements and useful tips for the application process.

• The organization of the content, and the usefulness of the material in helping the participants prepare well for the main conference day had 88% and 77% (respectively) of the participants praised to be “Very good” and “Good.”

Organizing team and Volunteers

• More than 92% of the participants gave all volunteers the scores of 5 and 4 on enthusiasm and friendliness.

• 100% of the participants gave all leaders of the groups (who are students currently studying in universities and colleges in the U.S.) the scores of 5 and 4 on enthusiasm and friendliness.

• In addition, 97% of the attendees gave the scores of 5 and 4 when evaluating the preparing process and professionalism of the Organizing team.

General assessment

• 90% of the participants gave the scores of 5 and 4 when evaluating the entertaining factor of Icebreaking Day.

• Besides that, 90% also shared that after Icebreaking Day, they felt like they are more prepared, confident, and excited for the Conference Day.

“Surprisingly great!”

“Thank you Organizing team. I love Icebreaking Day, I love VAC HN!”

“Today has been way too fun, thank you Organizing team for having an awesome Icebreaking Day”

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CONFERENCE DAY

102 out of 216 attendees of Conference Day filled out the online survey form for the Conference Day (Appendices, page 80). The grading system for questions asking about the Rotation model, Information sessions, and The discussion leaders of the Essay room directly analyzing and critiquing the essays written by the participants includes: Very helpful, helpful, just fine, and not helpful. With questions asking about guest speakers, discussion leaders, and Organizing team and volunteers, the grading system changes to: Very good, good, neutral, bad, and very bad. Morning - Main conference

Program’s Content • The three information sessions of School selection, Application experience sharing, and

Essay were assessed by almost 80% of the conference’s participants as “very useful” and “useful.”

• In addition, College Life also received positive comments by 72% of the participants with the scores of “very useful” and “useful.”

• 47% of the attendees said that VISA Application info session was helpful in helping them understanding more about the process of applying for VISA and why it is important when leaving to the U.S.

“What made me feel excited when attending this year’s conference was the useful information that the speakers gave. Moreover, I was very impressed with the professionalism and seriousness

of all speakers and discussion leaders. I really think that they succeeded because they all gave inspirations to all the participants, including me. I hope to study abroad in America someday,

and become successful like the conference’s guests. Thank you all, thank you VietAbroader very much!”

“The information in the conference has helped me to find my direction that I will go in the next

two years. Thank you Organizing team for the provided information.”

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Room rotation model • The rotation model in this year’s conference received many praises and positive

feedbacks. 93% of the participants commented that the rotation model helped them to concentrate more and understood the given information more easily.

• 82% complimented the model to be “very useful” in increasing the interaction between discussion leaders and participants.

• Furthermore, 88% agreed that the model not only helped them receive diverse comments and tips from discussion leaders of all three info sessions, but also assisted them to receive more detailed knowledge rather than just general ones.

• Around 86% said that that model was “very useful” and “useful” in lessening the dryness of all the given information.

“The Rotation model or this year is so new and so much more effective!”

“Thank you VAC HN for the conference with the rotation model, and all the enthusiastic discussion leaders for the highly interactive discussions rather than just sitting and listening.

With this new way, the conference also helped all attendees to become good friends with each other. Thank you VAC HN very much!”

“The rotation model was really exciting; it allowed all participants to get to talk to the guest

speakers and discussion leaders more, to ask more questions. The model also helped to make the conference less boring, and the time for each information session was also enough for the

students to ask detailed questions. This year’s conference is a lot better than last year’s conference, even the parents also participated more actively. The conference was excellent, the

water prepared for everyone showed the great hospitality and careful preparation by VietAbroader. I definitely think that the conference succeeded.”

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Guest speakers In this year’s conference, Program Team never stopped emphasizing the importance of the guest speakers, and especially the discussion leaders since they are the main people to pass on the knowledge and experiences to the participants.

• 89% said that the guest speakers had given them the correct and complete information. • Moreover, 77% of the students all had positive feedbacks and were very satisfied with the

creative and eye-catching presentations. • 83% agreed that the guest speakers were great at sharing their personal, detailed, and

useful experiences about the application process and life in the U.S. “There were speakers who got great achievements and created huge attentions to the listeners!”

“What I love the most about the speakers were their enthusiasm and how friendly they were.

Everyone felt more comfortable and confident about saying what they wanted to say. This year’s conference was definitely very successful!”

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Discussion leaders All discussion leaders also received many praises from the participants of the conference.

• 97% of the participants complimented the discussion leaders for their enthusiasm in sharing their experiences and answering all questions.

• More than 88% said that all discussion leaders were great in providing complete and correct information.

• Finally, 85% agreed that the discussion leaders were successful in creating a comfortable and exciting discussing environment.

“I really like the enthusiasm and great preparation by all discussion leaders. They really listened to us and wanted to share their information”

“I felt that the discussion leaders were very wise and thoughtful in helping us learn more about

the application process as well as the conference itself”

“All discussion leaders and the volunteers were very nice and passionate”

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Discussion leaders in the Essay room One of the conference’s highlights was the discussion leaders in the Essay room directly editing and giving constructive criticisms to the essays written by the participants.

• Around 83% of the attendees said that this new way has helped them to learn more about the common mistakes when writing college essays.

• Moreover, over 80% said that this has helped them to understand more about the ways to find and choose ideas for the essays.

• In addition, 75% gave the scores of “very good”and “good” about the discussion leaders helping the participants to understand how to organize ideas and make them sound alive, detailed, and exciting/

• Finally, almost 70% commented that they have learned more about ways to use words and organize sentences in the essays.

“I really like the discussion about how to come up with ideas and write college essay. The discussion leaders have given me new ideas to make the essay sound more personal. All the

personal experiences shared by the discussion leaders were very helpful”

“I really like the way information sessions were divided this year because they created more excitements for me. Furthermore, the fact that my essay was edited, as well as the discussion

leaders sharing their personal experiences and tips really gave me more advantages when choosing topics for the essay, and writing the essay”

55

Organizing team and Volunteers • Almost all participants gave positive feedbacks and praises to the Organizing team and

Volunteers. 90% gave “very good” to the enthusiasm and well preparation by the team and the volunteers.

• Besides that, 80% were very satisfied with the working attitude and professionalism of the team and the volunteers during the conference’s events.

“I really admire the scale of the conference. This really impressed me because this was the first time that I attended the conference”

“The working style of the organizing team was very admiring to me. In summary: the conference

was very well organized, and I personally felt that I have learned a lot of great knowledge from the conference”

“The morning sessions of the conference were very well-prepared. The afternoon session was

fun because there were many colleges and universities. I love VAC”

“The conference was very well-prepared and executed, from all the small details like drinking water (or changing to new water bottles when rotating to another new info session), to the

presentations, working attitudes…”

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Afternoon - College fair By the invitation to complete the evaluation form of the college fair on the VietAbroader Conference Facebook promotion page, Organizing team received 74 completed feedbacks from the participants. Arrangement of college booths in the fair.

• 55% of the people who completed the form rated the arrangement of the college booths as “Very good” and “Good,”

“Easier to find schools thanks to the division of geographic regions.”

“Very logical, convenient to visit”

“Many schools’ representatives warmly gave me instructions “

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Check-in system at the fair • This year, the new check-in system received more than 500 pre-registrations. However,

due to the unexpected internet problem at the venue, the the check-in system at the fair was canceled and changed to free entrance a few hours before the opening time. Fortunately, this cancellation did not affect the fair.

• 82% of the people who pre-registered online and read the promotion of the new system on the Facebook page of VietAbroader Conference in Hanoi rated the check-in system at the fair as “Very good” and “Good.”

“I did not check in. I got the code at home, but the crowd was so big at the venue that I could not get into the check-in area. Then a member of the Organizing Team told me that I did not have to check-in. From my own opinion, the check-in system was a great idea, but it would have worked

better if everyone had lined up to check-in as they did in the morning session.”

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Information about the fair • People were informed about the fair by sources such as the promotion page of the

Conference on Facebook, VietAbroader forum, friends and family, advertising materials, websites, and info sessions.

Organizing team and Volunteers

• 86% said that the enthusiasm and the professionalism of Organizing Team and volunteers were“Very good” and “Good.”

“Professional and enthusiastic”

“Everybody was so helpful. The volunteers was very enthusiastic. I received so many encouragements and advices from the people at the fair”

“Such an awesome event! Everyone worked hard, enthusiastically, and professionally”

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9. Locations

This year’s Press Conference Day took place at the Sofitel Plaza Hotel. This location is very suitable because the hotel is in the center of Hanoi, has professional service and a luxurious space. Icebreaking Day was a new event within VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Hanoi. The location needed to accommodate the new outdoor activities in this day, and therefore took place at the main location of Ly Thai To statue. The games included in the program were located around Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter. These locations satisfied Icebreaking Day’s requirements, and did not cost any fee. In order to meet the important requirement of this year’s Rotation model, the International Convention Center (ICC) continued to host the main conference day. The conference used in total one main hall, three small rooms, and one lobby. Once again, ICC proved to be a good and affordable venue.

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10. Promotion through media

The Delegate and Public Relations Teams have promoted the VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi through media channels such as VietAbroader forum, Facebook event page, high school forums, online news, and Youtube. VietAbroader Forum

Total number of posts: 13 Total number of replies: 32 Total number of views: 11,165 Effectiveness in promoting through VietAbroader Forum evaluated by the Delegate Team: 40%

- Not a lot of people access the VietAbroader Forum because most of them already has other VietAbroader sources such as the Facebook event page.

- However, VietAbroader Forum is one of VietAbroader’s official information channel, and therefore Delegate Team always has to post all annoucements on the forum.

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Facebook

VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi was promoted on Facebook through three different ways:

1. VietAbroader’s official facebook page - Number of new ‘likes’from 20/5 – 21/7: 4,250 - Number of people visited: 917,433 - Number of interactions (pressing ‘like,’ clicking on links, commenting): 59,405

2. The Facebook event page ‘VietAbroader Study Abroader Conference 2013 – in Ha Noi’

3. Other forums of high schools and study abroad agencies in Ha Noi

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Online News VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi has received many support and help from the press, below are a few of the articles: *all articles are written in Vietnamese xzone – Tri Thuc Thoi Doi “9x students who got great achievements to study abroad” http://xzone.vn/the-gioi-teen/nhung-9x-co-thanh-tich-khung-du-hoc-my_107800.html http://trithucthoidai.vn/nhung-9x-co-thanh-tich-khung-du-hoc-my-a96959.html#.UhytfhtjuSp Dau Tu “Students who are welcomed by many top U.S. colleges” http://baodautu.vn/news/vn/thoi-su/nhung-hoc-sinh-duoc-hang-chuc-truong-dai-hoc-my-don-nhan.html Nhan Dan Dien Tu “Helping students to define their study abroad paths in America” http://www.nhandan.com.vn/giaoduc/tin-tuc/item/20554702-giúp-học-sinh-định-hướng-du-học-mỹ.html Nguoi Dua Tin “Vietnamese student got accepted to 20 universities and colleges in America” http://www.nguoiduatin.vn/hoc-sinh-viet-nam-duoc-20-truong-dh-o-my-moi-hoc-a85692.html iOne “Female student receiving full-scholarship at a top-15 university in America” http://ione.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/nhip-song/guong-mat/nu-sinh-rinh-hoc-bong-toan-phan-dh-top-15-the-gioi-2822774.html “Ha Noi teenagers exploring the Old Quarter” http://ione.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/nhip-song/teen-ha-noi-thu-thach-kham-pha-pho-co-2848921.html Dan Tri “Female Vietnamese students sharing experiences on studying abroad in America” http://dantri.com.vn/nhip-song-tre/nu-sinh-viet-xinh-dep-truyen-kinh-nghiem-du-hoc-my-757627.htm

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11. Our People

ORGANIZING TEAM

Ton Nu Thuy Anh Conference Chair Bard College ‘16

Fundraising Team Pham Anh Thu Head of Fundraising Mount Holyoke College ’15 Bui Gia Khuyen Tufts University ’17 Nguyen Lam Phuong Lehigh University ’16

Logistics Team Tran Trong Thao Logistics Manager University of Texas at Arlington ‘16 Doan Trung Nghia Ha Noi - Amsterdam High School ’14 Nguyen Dieu Huyen Fremont High School ’14

Program Team Nguyen Cam Ly Program Manager Mount Holyoke College ’15 Bui Thai Vinh Ha Colby-Sawyer College ’15 Nguyen Viet Hoang Clark University ’16 Tran Viet Linh Washington and Lee University ’17

Information Technology Team Do Danh Viet Clark University ’17 Nguyen Duc Hoang Long Worcester Polytechnic Institute ’16 Design Team Tran Le Bao Anh University of Cincinnati ’15 Cao Ngoc Linh Mercyhurst University ’17

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Delegate Team Vu Minh Delegate Manager George Washington University ’16 Bui Khanh Huyen Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University ’18 Dang Quynh Trang Wyoming Seminary College Prep School ’14 Nguyen Ngoc Mai High School for Gifted Students - Hanoi University of Science ’14 Luong Hien Trang Clark University ’15

Public Relations Team Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong Head of Communications Quinnipiac University ’13 Tang Khanh Linh The Taft School ’14 Cao Hanh Phuc Ha Noi - Amsterdam High School ’14 Nguyen Thanh Binh National University of Singapore ’16 Pham Hoang Anh Ithaca College ’16

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EXECUTIVE TEAM

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Executive team of the VietAbroader organization for their enthusiastic support and tremendous contribution to the organizing process of the Conference:

Trinh Duc Minh Co-President Harvard University ’14 Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong Head of Communications Quinnipiac University ’13 Lam Tran Nhat Uyen Associate of Communications North Central College ’17 Nguyen Le Phuong Khanh Associate of communications RMIT University Vietnam ’14 Dao Viet Phuong Head of Member Relations Georgetown University ’15 Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao Head of VApedia Cornell College ’15

Ha Duy Co-President St. Olaf College ’14 Pham Anh Thu Head of Funding Mount Holyoke College ’15 Le Diep Quynh Associate of Funding Agnes Scott College ’13 Nguyen Thi Tam Associate of Funding Ohio Wesleyan University ’13 Nguyen Vu Phuc Thu Head of VietAbroader Forum Duke University ’16

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12. Acknowledgements

We would like to give special thanks to the following special guests from the U.S. Embassy Hanoi for attending the VietAbroader Study Abroad Conference in Ha Noi: Ambassador Michael Turner Deputy of Public Affairs Ambassador Zach Bailey Consular Officer Mr. Nguyen Hoang Giang EducationUSA Adviser In addition, we would also like to thank the following friends for lending us their generous support in the organizing process of the Conference: Nguyen Trung Hieu Adviser Bates College ’14 Nguyen Thi Ky Binh Adviser Hamilton College ’16 VietAbroader Club

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VietAbroader Organization would like to express our sincere gratitude to the support of:

Institutional Sponsors Corporate Sponsors

DIAMOND Drexel University

Edmonds Community College Lane Community College

PLATINUM

Shoreline Community College Southern Illinois University

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

GOLD Carroll University

Kansas State University Messiah College

South Puget Sound Community College University of Cincinnati

SILVER

California State University Loyola Marymount University

Lycoming College Miami University-Ohio North Central College

BRONZE

Adelphi University Agnes Scott College

Cascadia Community College Green River Community College

Lasalle University Marshall University

Sierra College

SILVER Capstone Vietnam

Golden Path Academics IIG Vietnam

Oxford English UK Vietnam World Courier - Express Vietnam

Media Sponsors TheBox.vn

Viet Teen Magazeen (VTM)

Partners EducationUSA

IDG Ventures Vietnam Unilever Vietnam

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13. Appendices

SURVEY – WHY U.S.?

1. Which topics do you want to learn more about at the conference? a. Application process

Number of votes Process of finding and selecting schools before applying 110 Process of applying 109 How to list out extracurricular activities 116 Standardized tests 69 Essays 131 Scholarship/ Financial aid 136 Interview 106

110

109

116

69

131

136

106

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Process of finding and selection schools before applying

Process of applying

How to list out extracurricular activities

Standardized tests

Essays

Scholarship/ Financial aid

Interview

Application process

69

b. After applying

Number of votes Process of selecting school after receiving acceptance results 112 Sharing college life experiences 122 Choosing major/minor 132

112

122

132

100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135

Process of selection school after receiving acceptance results

Sharing college life experiences

Choosing major/minor

After applying

70

c. Other options for studying abroad

Number of votes Gap year 95 Transfer 57 Community college 40 Boarding school 35

95

57

40

35

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Gap year

Transfer

Community college

Boarding school

Other options for studying abroad

71

2. What factors affect your choice of studying abroad?

Number of votes Family’s wishes 36 Friends who are also planning to study abroad 11 The great living environment abroad 111 The facilities, research opportunities 144 Chances to find stable jobs with high salaries 89 Not satisfied with the education quality in Viet Nam 88

36

11

111

144

89

88

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Family’s wishes

Friends who are also planning to study abroad

The great living environment abroad

The facilities, research opportunities

Chances to find stable jobs with high salaries

Not satisfied with the education quality in Viet Nam

What factors affect your choice of studying abroad?

72

3. What do you want to achieve from studying abroad in America?

Score 1 (least wanted) 2 3 4 5 (most

wanted) Study-research opportunities in a high quality education, with modern facilities, balanced curriculum between learning theories and doing actual practical work

6 5 5 26 114

Modern living society, independent and safe environment to live in

8 10 39 57 42

Become a global citizen, explore many different other cultures from the world, make new friends

3 10 24 37 82

Find a suitable and stable job with high salary; find many internships at top corporations

1 13 20 44 78

Gain chances to find self’s other talents and passions, gain experiences and hobbies that cannot be nourished when in Viet Nam

7 4 10 34 101

73

6 8 3 1 7 5 10 10 13 4 5

39 24 20

10 26

57

37 44

34

114

42

82 78 101

Study-research opportunities in a high quality

education, with modern

facilities, balanced

curriculum between learning

theories and doing actual

practical work

Modern living society,

independent, safe

environment to live in

To become a global citizen, explore many different other cultures from

the world, make new

friends

To find a suitable and

stable job with high salary; find many

internships at top

corporations

Gain chances to find self’s other talents and passions,

gain experiences and hobbies

that cannot be nourished when

in Viet Nam

What do you want to achieve from studying abroad in America?

5 4 3 2 1

74

4. With the experiences gained after studying abroad, what do you think will be your benefits If you plan to return to Viet Nam?

Number of votes

Practice soft skills, and important language skills in order to meet the needs of the job

138

More benefits in getting a good job with high salary 90

High research skills, can devote to other researching, teaching, studying offers at a higher level of education

107

Profession living and working style 134

Advantage of having a degree from American with an impressive resume 69

Geting help from the international students, friends, and professors from past colleges and universities

94

138

90

107

134

69

94

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Practice soft skills, and important language skills in order to meet the needs of the job

More benefits in getting a good job with high salary

High research skills, can devote to other researching, teaching, studying offers at a higher level of education

Profession living and working style

Advantage of having a degree from American with an impressive resume

Geting help from the international students, friends, and professors from past colleges and universities

With the experiences gained after studying abroad, what do you think will be your benefits If you plan to

return to Viet Nam?

75

ICEBREAKING DAY’S EVALUATION *Scoring scale: 5 = better than expected, 1 = bad

1. Your thoughts on the games

Score 5 4 3 2 1 All is right 30 28 21 3 3 Spreading leg to see questions 33 25 18 5 1 Eat 56 7 8 2 4 See photo guess place 35 18 13 4 2 Draw keyword 39 18 15 1 2 Throw milk box 30 9 7 6 12 Ask foreigner 39 18 12 4 0 Blindfold and guess friends 30 11 12 4 1

30 33

56

35 39 30 39 30

28 25

7

18 18

9

18 11

21 18 8

13 15

7

12 12

3 5 2 4 1

6

4 4 3 1 4 2 2

12

0 1

All is right Spreading leg to see

questions

Eat See photo guess place

Draw keyword

Throw milk box

Ask foreigner Blindfold and guess friends

Your thoughts on the games

1 2 3 4 5

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2. Invited guests, Organizing Team, and Volunteers Score 5 4 3 2 1

Enthusiasm of the game instructors 56 14 6 0 0 Friendliness of the game instructors 57 15 4 0 0 Enthusiasm of the team leaders 65 10 0 0 0 Friendliness of the team leaders 59 13 2 0 0 Working attitude and professionalism of the Organizing team and Volunteers 49 16 2 0 0

56 57 65

59 49

14 15

10 13

16

6 4 0 2 2

Enthusiasm of the game instructors

Friendliness of the game instructors

Enthusiasm of the team leaders

Friendliness of the team leaders

Working attitude and professionalism of the Organizing team and

Volunteers

Invited guests, Organizing Team, and Volunteers

1 2 3 4 5

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3. General evaluation Score 5 4 3 2 1

Entertaining factor of Icebreaking Day 42 21 7 0 0 Knowledge about studying abroad in America gained from Icebreaking Day 16 16 24 8 0 Preparedness, confidence, and excitement for Conference Day (21/7) 40 19 7 0 0

42

16

40

21

16

19

7

24

7 0

8 0

Entertaining factor of Icebreaking Day

Knowledge about studying abroad in America gained from Icebreaking

Day

Preparedness, confidence, and excitement for Conference Day

(21/7)

General evaluation

1 2 3 4 5

78

4. Your most favorite game? Number of

votes All is right 4 Spreading legs to see question 11 Eat 30 See photo guess place 6 Draw keyword 7 Throw milk box 4 Ask foreigner 10 Blindfold and guess friends 2

4

11

30

6

7

4

10

2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

All is right

Spreading legs to see question

Eat

See photo guess place

Draw keyword

Throw milk box

Ask foreigner

Blindfold and guess friends

Your most favorite game?

79

5. Game that did not meet your expectation? Number of

votes All is right 0 Spreading legs to see question 7 Eat 7 See photo guess place 2 Draw keyword 0 Throw milk box 17 Ask foreigner 2 Blindfold and guess friends 3

0

7

7

2

0

17

2

3

0 5 10 15 20

All is right

Spreading legs to see question

Eat

See photo guess place

Draw keyword

Throw milk box

Ask foreigner

Blindfold and guess friends

Game that did not meet your expectation?

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CONFERENCE DAY’S EVALUATION

1. How would you assess the Room rotation model?

Very useful

Useful Neutral Not useful

Total

Easy to concentrate and comprehend the given information

53 42 7 0 102

Increases the interaction between discussion leaders, guest speakers, and participants

54 30 16 2 102

Helps you to receive a diverse number of information and stories from all discussion leaders

48 42 11 1 102

Helps you to receive core knowledge rather than just general knowledge

49 35 15 3 102

Makes the information sessions less boring 52 36 13 1 102

53 54 48 49 52

42 30 42 35

36

7 16

11 15

13

0 2 1 3 1

Easy to concentrate and comprehend the given information

Increases the interaction between discussion leaders, guest speakers, and

participants

Helps you to receive a diverse number of

information and stories from all discussion

leaders

Helps you to receive core knowledge rather

than just general knowledge

Makes the information sessions less boring

How would you assess the Room rotation model?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

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2. How would you assess the information sessions in the conference?

Very useful

Useful Neutral Not useful

Total

School selection 32 48 19 3 102 Application experience sharing 38 40 20 4 102 Essay 49 30 21 2 102 College life 37 36 24 5 102 VISA Application 17 31 44 10 102

32 38

49 37

17

48 40 30

36

31

19 20 21 24

44

3 4 2 5 10

School selection Application experience sharing

Essay College life VISA Application

How would you assess the information sessions in the conference?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

82

3. How would you assess about the discussion leaders directly read, analyze, and give comments on the essays written by the participants of the conference?

Very useful

Useful Neutral Not useful

Total

Helps you learn more about common mistakes when writing essays

47 38 12 5 102

Helps you understand more about ways to find and select ideas for the essays

45 35 21 1 102

Helps you understand ways to organize and present ideas effectively

42 35 21 4 102

Helps you to find different ways to use words, organize sentences, and styles to write essays

35 34 31 3 102

47 45 42 35

38 35

35

34

12 21 21

31

5 1 4 3

Helps you learn more about common mistakes

when writing essays

Helps you understand more about ways to find and

select ideas for the essays

Helps you understand ways to organize and present

ideas effectively

Helps you to find different ways to use words,

organize sentences, and styles to write essays

How would you assess about the discussion leaders directly read, analyze, and give comments on the

essays written by the participants of the conference?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

83

4. How would you assess the Icebreaking Day booklet?

Very useful

Useful Neutral Not useful

Total

Helps you to know well about what is needed in a complete application

35 51 16 0 102

Presentation of the content 40 50 12 0 102 Helps you to prepare better for the main Conference Day

34 45 23 0 102

35 40

34

51 50

45

16 12 23

Helps you to know well about what is needed in a complete application

Presentation of the content Helps you to prepare better for the main Conference Day

How would you assess the Icebreaking Day booklet?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

84

5. How would you evaluate the guest speakers?

Very useful

Useful Neutral Not useful

Total

Provided accurate information 42 49 10 1 102 Gave interesting presetations 38 41 20 3 102 Provided detailed and helpful personal experiences

48 37 16 1 102

42 38 48

49

41

37

10

20 16

1 3 1

Provided accurate information Gave interesting presetations Provided detailed and helpful personal experiences

How would you evaluate the guest speakers?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

85

6. How would you evaluate the discussion leaders?

Very useful

Useful Neutral Not useful

Total

Enthusiasm in sharing personal experienes and answering attendees’ questions

69 30 3 0 102

Provided accurate information 52 38 10 2 102 Created a conformatable and engaging environment

49 36 16 1 102

69

52 49

30

38 36

3

10 16

0 2 1

Enthusiasm in sharing personal experienes and answering attendees’

questions

Provided accurate information Created a conformatable and engaging environment

How would you evaluate the discussion leaders?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

86

7. How would you evaluate the Organizing team and Volunteers? Very

useful Useful Neutral Not

useful Total

Enthusiasm and thoughtfulness 59 33 10 0 102 Professionalism 48 32 21 1 102

59

48

33

32

10

21

0 1

Enthusiasm and thoughtfulness Professionalism

How would you evaluate the Organizing Team and Volunteers?

Not useful Neutral Useful Very useful

87

COLLEGE FAIR MAP

88

89

90

The Executive Report of the VietAbroader Conference 2013 in Ha Noi was completed by members of the Organizing Team: Conference Chair, members of

Program Team, Delegate Manager, and Logistics Manager.