Vietnam’s Future Leaders Scholarships Foundation
A. Our project = the huge amounts of money + philanthropy + patriotism → a better Vietnam
Vietnam’s Future Leaders Scholarships Foundation (V.F.L.S.F.) is a non-profit organization that was created by a group of students in Vietnam and USA.
1) What are the main purposes of V.F.L.S.F.?
Like other non-profit organizations, V.F.L.S.F. has its own purposes. They could be divided in 2 major groups:
· Short-term purpose: offering financial helps to the students with financial hardships.
· Long-term purpose: creating the great generations of the Vietnamese leaders.
2) How would V.F.L.S.F. benefit the society in Vietnam?
· Since all the scholarships require extracurricular activities, the students will start to care more about the community services. In other words, scholarships are the incentives that motivate the students to care for their society.
· Then, they will realize that they have a mission of taking care of their country.
· After years, we will have the Vietnamese generations who would sacrifice themselves to serve their community instead of carrying about their own success. Those will be the true leaders because “A great leader is a good servant.” They will run the country with love, compassion, excellent leadership-skills and philanthropy.
· Patriotism will also be built by time.
· Through these activities, the tight connections will be made between the Vietnamese generations in Vietnam and in other countries. They will work together and help each other to develop Vietnam.
3) Why would people like to give out scholarships?
· To encourage others to maintain their educations
· To give their money away for the good purposes and knowing exactly what their donations will be used for
· To help making Vietnam an active and a fluent English speaking country
· To help forming a great generation of Vietnamese future leaders
4) A complete scholarship application contains:
· Application form
· Transcripts
· Essay (the most important part)
· Proof of extracurricular activities
· Letter of recommendation from an academic advisor (included contact information)
· Letter of recommendation from a club/organization advisor ( plus contact info )
· Some other proofs of housing contracts and income tax ( if needed )
· Interview (after finalists are selected)
5) How to win scholarships?
· In order to win the scholarships of V.F.L.S.F., the applicants, beside getting good grades in school, should have been getting themselves involved in plenty of extracurricular activities (community services, social and volunteer works)
· When the donors of the scholarships consider for their applicants to be their scholarships’ recipients, they always want to pick the best ones out of them. Therefore, those recipients must be the greatest among the huge population of the scholarships applicants. The students with leadership experiences will be more considered.
6) How would the donors define a qualified recipient?
· An excellent, ambitious, open-minded student who has leadership skill
· Has demonstrated financial hardship
· Has demonstrated academic promise
· His/ her contribution to the society.
· Does that applicant know how to serve the community?
· Will that applicant become a good leader?
7) How would you prove that you will be able to serve and benefit your community?
(Go back to the # 2 and # 3 which introduced about “extracurricular activities.”)
· Your contribution to the society is shown on your extracurricular activities.
· You might be required to include your activities proofs such as articles about your club, pictures, video clips, etc...
· Based on the letter of recommendation from your club advisor, you will be able to prove that you have the abilities to work and benefit your community
· F.Y.I: You will be more considered if you hold a position in your club.
· Positions could be: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Ministry Coordinator, Secretary, etc… Being a staff member helps you to prove your leadership skill.
8) What are extracurricular activities? Examples?
· Basically, they are the activities that serve and benefit your society.
· Ex: Joining Mua He Xanh, singing in the choir, volunteering to work or teach English/Vietnamese/French for the disabled and homeless kids of the organizations such as Maison Chance (Nha May Man), Hoa Binh, …
· Volunteering to take care of the patients in the hospitals
· Performing in school, district, or city as vocalist, dancer or actor/actress
· Helping any individuals at home or in the community
· Working experience in the coffee shops, restaurants, shopping centers…
F.Y.I: The students will be asked to submit their proofs of extracurricular activities and references.
B. Frequently asked questions
1) How do you start your project, and how will you end it?
a) Kelvin Pham - our organizer, started this project by being a public speaker (guest-speaker) for the English schools in Vietnam to inspire the students and give them some tips to succeed in the English speaking countries. Then, we will be able to get connections with different schools in Vietnam. Those are the places that the students will be looking forward to hearing about the scholarships.
b) How will we end our project? Our works will be done as soon as we pass away, but our project will surely be taken care of by the next generations.
2) How would the donors trust and give scholarship money to V.F.L.S.F.?
The famous English schools in Vietnam, where Kelvin Pham has made his presentations at, will help us to prove it. Plus, our prestige is also based on our good purposes, professionalism and contributions to the society in Vietnam and all around the world.
3) An example of how a scholarship works?
· We post the scholarship with the name of its donor(s) on our website or some bulletins. (With the full instructions about its criteria, prize(s), deadlines and mailing address)
· The applicants apply for the scholarship.
· We interview the finalists, then consider for the winner(s)
· A ceremony might be held if we gather up to a certain number of scholarships
4) Could I become a scholarship donor?
Absolutely yes, everybody can be scholarship donor as long as you have:
· At least an amount of money. (More than $300 U.S.D.)
· Good purposes when giving out the scholarship.
· Good C.V. and background information.
-Ex: Mrs. Mary Jane is a retired nurse. She wants to give $1000 to someone who is pursuing a degree in nursing program. She will give the money to our fund. Then, we will post the scholarship announcement as “Mary Janes scholarship- Nursing career.” Mrs. Mary Jane will also be one of the interviewers and decisions’ makers.
5) Are there any advantages of being a scholarship donor?
Of course there are. Every scholarship contains its donor’s name. (Ex: “Mary Jane scholarship- Nursing career) We will also have a short résumé or some brief details about the donors posted on our website. The applicants will be more considered if they can give a short answer about the scholarship donors. Therefore, the scholarship donors will be known as the philanthropists who give their money away to encourage others to keep maintaining their educations.
6) What are the recipients allowed to spend their scholarship money on?
Only on tuitions, studying books and dormitories (“Dorms” could also be apartments)
The recipients will have to show proofs of their books’ receipts, housing contracts…
7) Why don’t we aim on the extremely poor students to give scholarships?
As a flow through the cycle, the recipients will tend to be the helpers to others when they succeed. Plus, those extracurricular activities will help building philanthropy and compassion between the people in the community. The young generations of Vietnam with advantages of education will tend to help others with struggling studying and living conditions to overcome their adversities. That will make a perfect society.
8) What language should the letters of recommendation be written in?
· That would be great to have those letters written or translated in English, but they could also be in Vietnamese.
· The translated letter should be attached with its original work with the signatures of both writer and translator.
· Exception: the foreign language scholarships (French, Korean, Japanese… Scholarships)
In order to accomplish this project, we really need helps from many people. We are forming our non-profit organization, raising money for our scholarships fund, looking for cooperators.
If you are interested in our project and would love cooperate with us please contact us at:
Email address: Compassion_4_animals@yahoo.com
In Vietnam: Vivian Vu : 0939-73-93-90 and Nguyen Manh Hoang: 0907-51-51-22
In U.S.A: Kelvin Pham: 1-707-372-4170
We are looking for the appropriate cooperators for the following positions :
· Donors: people who donate money to provide scholarships
· Public-speakers: to talk to inspire the students in Vietnam
· Computer experts: to create and manage the website of the fund
· Treasurer: to take care of the fund money
· Secretary: to take notes about the activities
· Bloggers: to advertise our fund on their blogs and get connections with others
