Nguyen Hong Gia Nghi from Phan Thiet initially applied for the ASEAN Merit undergraduate scholarship, which covers tuition, living expenses, housing and even funding for overseas exchange. But NUS went further, awarding her not only the undergraduate scholarship but also a full-tuition master’s scholarship from the university’s College of Design and Engineering, valid from 2028 to 2032.
“This joy is overwhelming,” Nghi said. “Beyond boosting my confidence, the scholarship relieves my family of financial burden.”
The path to this rare achievement began years earlier. In 2021, while still in grade 10 at Tran Hung Dao High School for the Gifted in Phan Thiet, Nghi won a secondary ASEAN scholarship that took her to Singapore’s Chinese Girls’ School. It was her first time living abroad, right during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cut off from home and forced to spend a year in quarantine without returning to Vietnam, she relied on phone calls with family to ease her homesickness while sticking to a strict daily study schedule.
Her discipline paid off. She excelled in math, physics and geography, earning top 5% recognition on the principal’s list. She also won medals in national competitions, including gold in math and bronze in physics, before moving on to St Andrew’s Secondary School, where she was selected for the prestigious Nanyang Research Program.
Over eight months under the guidance of NTU professors, she explored energy transfer between semiconductors and rare earth elements to generate white light. The experience forced her to learn coding, data analysis and scientific writing from scratch. By the end, she had produced a full report and defended it before an academic panel, rare for a high school student.
“She is very hardworking, sets high goals, and always strives to achieve them, no matter how difficult,” said her mentor Anh Tuyet, who described Nghi as “an applicant who impressed professors with early research achievements.”
Nghi also left her mark outside research. She launched a tutoring initiative that paired older students with younger ones, eventually reaching more than 200 students, including those from nearby middle schools. At first, she only recruited high-scoring peers, but many felt pressured by the selection.
“The plan had to be adjusted to include training sessions on teaching skills,” she said. The change, which even drew praise from the school principal, made the program inclusive and impactful.
The ASEAN scholarship application process itself was rigorous. Alongside stellar grades, recommendation letters and achievements, Nghi had to complete five essays of 150–200 words. Her favorite focused on her tutoring project. She then advanced to a 15-minute online interview, where admissions officers asked questions designed to uncover her personality as much as her academic ability.
Nghi’s achievements extended to Singapore’s national competitions too, where she won medals in chemistry and physics, and she even completed advanced H3 courses in physics and semiconductor devices, which are university-level classes taught by NTU professors. Her results were so strong she earned Distinction and secured future credit exemptions at NUS.
“That was the most stressful time. I slept less and ate faster to make time for everything,” she recalled.
This July, Nghi officially began her bachelor’s program in Materials Science and Engineering at NUS. Although she already has a master’s scholarship guaranteed, her ultimate goal is to pursue research and move straight into a PhD.
“I know I’ll have to plan carefully and give my best effort during the four years of university,” she said.
