Student Welcome Letter
Marcel Van Miert – VAS Executive Chairman
Firstly, I hope that all of you will have fantastic learning experiences at VAS during the coming school year. For me, being a young student is the most precious time in life as this is when we develop life-long friendship with our fellow students and ever lasting sweet memories with our teachers. I was fortunate to have a very happy school life and I want you to have that same happy experience; I want you to be loved, cared for, guided properly, and able to develop your full potentials in a safe and inspiring learning environment. I want you to be equipped with necessary values, skills and knowledges to become good global citizens in future.
It would be unrealistic to say there will be no problems or hurdles throughout your schooling time with VAS. You will be affected by unexpected incidents in life or in your family. In some other circumstances, your study may be distracted by negative problems of the society or physical / emotional changes in yourself. So the question is what do you need to do to overcome these negative factors and turn them into meaningful challenges to help you develop and grow? The answer to this question is a combination of a positive spirit and a strong skill foundation. However, it is never easy to become a person with both positive spirit and strong skill foundation. It requires hard work, continuous improvement and pursuit of good values and positive attitude. This will become the key attributes that enable you to succeed and live a meaningful and happy life.
I’d like to encourage all of you to take pride in yourselves. You might not be so good at mathematics but with a beautiful voice, you can cheer everybody up. You might not be an expert in literature but excellent at chess. You might not be so strong academically but every move of your dance excites and lightens up people around you. You might not have excellent English skills but can communicate fluently in another foreign language. You might be one with strong personality but have a kind and caring heart. Each of you have your own values and they are all worth being respected. So stay focused, explore and enrich your potentials every day. And as you all see, successful and great people are not necessarily the ones with A grades all the time. Just be the best version of yourself you can be!
“I’d like to encourage all of you to take pride in yourselves”
However, realizing your own strong points and talents does not mean being self-centered and ignoring the role of your team and fellow students. I’d like to offer you a quote from Warren Buffet, an outstanding investor of the 21st century: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. This is very true and you will realize its impact in both your present and future activities. It is important to demonstrate your individual strengths but please always be a team player and respect the strength of teamwork. You will see miracles happening when you can do that.
The world is changing every minute but there are things that are time-proof and forever lasting. I hope you will be able to appreciate and preserve those values throughout your life. At VAS, our aim is to nurture and support you in becoming a global citizen. And a true global citizen, besides an adequate knowledge and skill background, must take pride in his/her own national values and be responsible for his/her community’s progress and country’s development. It would be my great honor to see you, students at VAS, as growing up individuals, who respect family and care for people around, who are willing to help those less fortunate, who are respectful to teachers and friendly to other fellow students. I’d like to see you growing up to be a new generation of Vietnam with talents, positive international outlook, and civilized mindset and strong attachment to your country.
“Learning is a lifelong job”
I know that schooling in Vietnam is often of great pressure for students from both family and social perspective. I like to share part of that pressure for you at VAS through the creation of diversified extra curriculum activities, field trips, practical and experiential learning activities, etc… to make your schooling a happy and enjoyable experience every day. I also like you to manage in a better way the expectations of your parents, who work diligently for your betterment. Like you, I had a difficult time with my parents during my childhood, however, everything can be resolved with mutual respect and understanding. Open your heart and share with them your dreams and aspirations. Understand them as parenting is a tough job. Tell them how much you love them. I am still learning every day to become a better father and understand my children. When you become parents to your own lovely but stubborn children, you will understand your parents better and probably laugh out loud when you recall both great and not very great stuff that you are going through with your parents today.
Finally, I like to remind you that learning is a lifelong job. It does not finish when you finish schooling. We not only learn academic stuff but also how to live a good life and how to behave, how to adapt ourselves into life. Steve Jobs, a legendary businessman and founder of Apple, gave his staff meaningful advice: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” This means not to stop and always pursue things that you have passion and aspirations for. I hope that you will develop this motivation for your own study. Stay passionate and persistent with your goals. Let your curiosity overwhelm you and explore new things along your journey. Pose questions and share your ideas, make your own experiments and do not be afraid of being laughed at as you will see how great and admirable it will be when you achieve your dreams.
I wish you an enjoyable and memorable school year ahead.
Marcel Van Miert
Executive Chairman
Vietnam Australia International School
Hệ thống trường Dân lập Quốc tế Việt Úc
