Tuoi Tre newspaper Aug 24 awarded scholarships worth VND510 million ($24,800) to 102 poor students in the central province of Quang Tri. This is part of the “Giving Strength to Students” scholarship fund founded by the newspaper to provide financial aid to needy students around the country who have just passed the national university entrance exam that closed in early July. Many of the scholarship recipients are orphans or half orphans who had to overcome many hurdles to reach the threshold of higher education – a big dream for many Vietnamese young people. “Hopefully the scholarships will help lay the first stepping stone on the students’ way to college,” Le Quoc Phong, chairman of a local society which sponsors the 102 scholarships, said at the awarding ceremony. The “Giving Strength to Students” scholarship fund was set up in 2003 to give financial support to freshmen in unfavorable economic conditions. The newspaper has presented 5,085 such scholarships for the last 8 years. It plans to grant 1,320 scholarships to students in 49 provinces and cities across the country this year. (www.tuoitrenews.vn [1] Aug 26)
