Thanh Nha, Class of 2019 Alumna won full scholarship from York University

Since her official graduation from BVIS HCMC in June 2019, Kaysie Thanh Nha is currently busy with her new learning journey in Toronto, Canada. Studying Medical Management as her major, Kaysie is extremely excited about her experiences at York University, as well as her new life studying in Canada.  

It was not a surprise to her peers and teachers at BVIS when they heard that Kaysie had earned her scholarship to York University. Graduating in 2019, she achieved an outstanding set of A Level results with an A* for Mathematics and 3A grades for English Literature, Advanced Mathematics and Physics. In addition to this, Kaysie achieved an IELTS score of 8.0 and a SAT score of 1500. During her time at BVIS HCMC, the city’s most prestigious bilingual international school and part of Nord Anglia Education, the world’s largest group of premium schools, Kaysie also played her leadership role in many internal and external activities.  

Although she was one of the highest academic achievers across the BVIS cohort, few people knew that Kaysie used to be timid and quiet because she often found herself under the shadow of her equally successful older sister, who also achieved outstanding success at BVIS. 

Kaysie said, “My sister in fact was an outstanding person. I always admired her, but this means I self-created an invisible pressure when seeing what she achieved. During my first years at BVIS, I was not open at all and Mr. Stuart Reid – Head of Year 11&12, recognised it precisely. Thanks to the after-school conversations with him, I gradually understood that I should have tried to discover more about myself to figure out my real passions and desires, instead of trying to be better than my sister.” Kaysie also expressed her own thoughts, often experienced by many teenagers through her own book, entitled “Big Brother’s Shadow”, which was chosen and published by the Friends to Friends Project in 2018. The story spreads a meaningful message about how to respect the differences of each child - an important message for both parents and students.

With the encouragement from school and her passions for service learning within the local community, Kaysie and her peers actively joined in many impactful social projects.   

At BVIS, Kaysie encouraged her peers to carry out research and seek selection to be among a small number of students across the world who organised and established ‘Launch X Club’, with the aim to promote STEM learning with startup projects that are beneficial to disadvantaged communities. Kaysie held online orientation classes to help students from Year 7 to Year 11 to refine and enhance their skills as well as creating three interesting projects. Within school, she also was a media ambassador for the ‘Have a Heart’ project that was launched by BVIS as part of their extensive service-learning provision in 2017. The project included 1,000 artworks created by BVIS students which were exhibited to raise funds for children born with heart problems and in need of urgent surgery. 

If these achievements were not enough, Kaysie was also chosen to join the High-Level UN Conference in New York, where she was involved with 66 other representatives from across NAE schools around the world in discussion panels relating to UNICEF’s global sustainable goals. All these experiences were gained firsthand at the Head Quarters of the United Nations in New York.

Besides her excellent university enrolment, Kaysie stated that what really persuaded York University to grant her their scholarship was her own personal story, developing her own confidence and thriving in her own learning journey within BVIS. 

“The time I spent in BVIS actually helped me to become more mature as well as define my own spirit and characteristics. BVIS offers lots of unique opportunities so students can discover more about themselves. Thanks to these specific experiences at the school, I found out that I am passionate in Medical Management, and I believe that the skills I learnt at BVIS will be a solid foundation for my future study at York University," Kaysie Ngo, Class of 2019 Alumna.