In 1965, a young Vietnamese man arrived in Australia on a scholarship to study chemical engineering. He went on to complete a PhD, entered the workforce and became a key figure in Victoria's business community. Now, more than 30 years later, Dr Nguyen Van Hung wants to share his good fortune. Dr Nguyen, a graduate of Monash University (PhD Eng 1976), recently organised a reunion of former scholarship students from Vietnam which resulted in the launch of a fund to help Vietnamese students gain access to higher education. "We want to help ordinary Vietnamese improve their lives," says Dr Nguyen. Dr Nguyen Van Hung wants to share his good fortune with others. The reunion included more than 20 Vietnamese professionals who arrived to study at Australian universities on Colombo Plan scholarships in 1965. A Commonwealth Government initiative, the plan provided scholarships for large numbers of students from the Asia-Pacific region. "At the reunion, we felt that many young, bright Vietnamese today are not in the fortunate situation that we were in 30 years ago," Dr Nguyen said. "We wanted to help them in some way, so we've set up the fund to provide scholarships for those in need of support." In its first year of operation, the fund has already provided 22 scholarships to engineering students in Vietnam. Training engineers is the focus of Dr Nguyen's scholarship fund. For Dr Nguyen, it is a scheme with altruistic aims. Like elsewhere, he says, Vietnam has its fair share of people who are trying to support their families but who wish to gain a professional qualification. "Unfortunately, many of these people do not have the resources to access higher education," he said. "We want to help ordinary Vietnamese improve their lives." - Derek Brown If you would like to make donations to the Monash Alumni Scholarship Fund, created to provide support to Monash students, or to support the university in any other way, contact the Office of University Development on +61 3 9905 2340.

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