Take Off August Edition: Spreading a Spirit of Dedication and Responsibility in the Community

August marks historic moments that signalled a turning point for Vietnam, ushering in an era of independence and freedom. The patriotism, determination and aspirations that emerged from that historic autumn have become an enduring legacy for generations of Vietnamese people.

Under the theme “Source”, the August edition of Take Off tells the stories of ordinary yet dedicated individuals who are preserving and renewing the nation’s cultural and intellectual heritage. Through perseverance and a strong sense of community responsibility, they are helping build a more confident and developed Vietnam in this new era.

The programme’s guest commentators were Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son, a full-time member of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture and Social Affairs, and singer Vu Thuy Linh. The three speakers were Mr. To Dinh Hieu(MA), Director of the Binh Lieu Commune Public Service Center in Quang Ninh Province, Vang Thi Dinh, teacher  at the Dong Van Boarding Secondary and High School for Ethnic Minority Students in Tuyen Quang Province; and   Dang Thi Kim Chi  (PhD), People’s Teacher and former Deputy Director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Technology at Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

Preserving the source of tradition

Hailing from a family steeped  in tradition,   To Dinh Hieu, MA, Director of the Binh Lieu Commune Public Service Center in Quang Ninh Province, became a teacher of Then singing and the tinh lute, translating his passion into community classes for adults and children alike. He has taken the sound of the tinh lutebeyond Binh Lieu, even to France, where it carried memories of his family and homeland.

Over time, his classes have  evolved into a shared community space  where  experienced learners pass  their skills on to newcomers. For   Hieu, preserving heritage means keeping it alive in contemporary life and ensuring that what he loves is passed on to future generations.

His greatest joy is not  in how many songs he knows or how many  melodies he can play, but knowing that this heritage will not remain his alone.

A STEM classroom on the rocky plateau: A Journey of happiness

In 2025, a STEM team from the Dong Van Karst Plateau made national headlines after winning the Steel Spirit Award at the VEX IQ Robotics Competition, third prize at the VEX VR Virtual Robotics Championship, and a national secondary-school STEM Team award.

Vang Thi Dinh, a teacher at  Dong Van Boarding Secondary and High School for Ethnic Minority Students led the team.  Despite having no prior background in robotics, she taught herself programming, robotics and AI from scratch, guiding her students through the same process of trial and error.

After nearly two decades teaching on the rocky plateau,  Dinh remains committed to creatin opportunities for children in the highland . For her, education is not about deciding their futures, but giving them more choices and a wider path forward.

Nurturing green sources

Dang Thi Kim Chi, People’s Teacher, is one of the pioneers of environmental science and technology in Vietnam. She has spent  decades working  on solutions to pollution in traditional craft villages, earning her Kovalevskaia Award and numerous other honours. The daughter of Professor and Doctor Dang Vu Hy, she grew up with   her father's enduring that learning is a lifelong journey.

In the 1980s, when environmental protection was still a relatively new concept in Vietnam, Professor Dr. Chi chose to pursue the field, believing it would become increasingly important as the country industrialized. She and her colleagues helped lay the foundations for environmental science in Vietnam, while passing their knowledge on to generations of students.

For  Chi, scientific achievements matter only when they can be applied in practice. Her enduring goal is to help craft villages develop sustainably without leaving  environmental burdens for future generations.

The three speakers in the August edition of Take Off have followed different paths, yet  they all  share  the belief  that  meaningful values must be passed on to future generations. That “source”  can originate in a family, a teacher, or a cultural tradition, then grow through knowledge, science, and creativity. It continues to flow when each generation values what it inherits and enriches it with the aspirations of its own time.  It is through the quiet dedication of ordinary people who preserve, renew, and pass on these values that  the Vietnamese source continues to grow stronger for the future.