Tay girl wins top prize in Humanities major

Duong Khanh Huyen, born in 2005, Tay ethnic group, is a former student of the History specialized class, Bac Kan High School for the Gifted.

Duong Khanh Huyen, new valedictorian of Public Relations.

With a total score of 26.4 in three subjects: Math, Literature and Chinese, she was admitted to the Public Relations major. This is a "hot" major with the highest starting score at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-USSH) in 2023.

VNU-USSH President, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan presented the certificate of merit for being the top student in the industry to Khanh Huyen at the opening ceremony of the 2023-2024 school year.

Sharing with reporters of the Vietnamese Student page of Tien Phong newspaper, she said she was shocked after more than two months of studying at university. She considers herself an optimistic person, rarely facing pressure from studying, but is sensitive and likes privacy. She also has special affection for pets such as dogs and cats, because she always finds a sense of healing when playing with them.

“I still haven’t had time to adapt to the environment and life in the capital. There is so much new and heavy knowledge that I had never heard of in high school. I have met many new friends, everyone is very good and talented, so I have more motivation to improve myself,” Khanh Huyen confided.
During her high school years, she was the class monitor, received scholarships from the school for many consecutive semesters, and was an active member of the Bac Kan Specialized Dance Club. She said that being the valedictorian of the History Specialized Class is the achievement she is most proud of, because it not only shows her constant efforts but also her luck. Before that, Khanh Huyen had a period of time studying Literature but almost never achieved high results and always felt that the future was "blurred" because she had not found a suitable direction for herself.

Just one month before the 10th grade entrance exam, she decided to switch to studying for the History major. This was a rather risky and reckless decision, causing the female student to stay up many nights studying and taking crash courses. Similarly, she chose a new direction after entering high school. Being a fan of Chinese idols, she tried learning Chinese. Over time, she found this language interesting and attractive, so she learned it faster.
In grade 10, in order to seriously pursue Chinese, Khanh Huyen convinced her family to switch to the D04 exam group instead of the original C00 orientation. Along with that, she had to try to balance studying English and maintaining stable scores in her subjects in class. At that time, in Bac Kan city, there was only one foreign language center teaching Chinese. However, due to a lack of teachers, the center's operations were not stable. So after finishing the basic course here, she decided to study by herself, review for the certificate exam and the high school graduation exam. Khanh Huyen researched free and paid courses on the Internet, and joined many Chinese learning groups on social networks. By 2022, she passed the HSK4 Chinese certificate, an intermediate level in 6 HSK levels. This is also a sufficient level of Chinese for early admission to many universities.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to take the HSK exam online, which is the riskiest form of exam. Unfortunately, before the exam day, I contracted COVID-19, so I am still not really satisfied with the result,” Khanh Huyen said.

Thanks to her good academic results, training and foreign language certificates, Khanh Huyen passed the early entrance exams to universities such as Hanoi University, University of Commerce and Hanoi Open University. Regarding her high school graduation exam score, she confidently put Public Relations as her first choice. According to her, learning Chinese is not only beneficial for the Public Relations industry, but can also be a plus for students in many other industries. There are many Chinese companies operating in our country, in addition to Chinese proficiency, employers also require dynamism and sensitivity to constant change in the digital age. These are also the outstanding characteristics of students majoring in Public Relations.

Khanh Huyen participates in an extracurricular activity at university.

In the near future, Khanh Huyen plans to improve her foreign languages, both English and Chinese. In addition, she also wants to learn more professional skills such as office computer skills, or soft skills such as presentation, planning, etc. She also wants to arrange time to join some clubs at school to experience the vibrant student life.