Helly Tống: “Let’s empower and have faith in the young generation!”

As a businesswoman, model, and community activist, Helly Tong (Tong Khanh Linh) is considered a modern, knowledgable, passionate and ambitious representative of the young generation. She is also an influential speaker for students through her persistent journey to pursue a green lifestyle and sustainable development. Below are Helly's shares after the series of VAS Talks 2021:

1. How does Helly feel after participating in this year's VAS Talks? What does Helly comment on the changes and growth in thoughts of the students over 3 consecutive years participating in the event?

This is my third year being speaker at VAS Talks, but I still feel anticipated and nervous before each sharing session. Even though I know there will be surprises, every time I meet students again, I am still proud to see their maturity through their way of sharing, and raising concern for complex problems, which I myself might not be able to do at that age.

I believe that the bravery and confidence that students have must come from a great learning environment. Especially, the way the school has created dynamic sharing spaces really helps children to form “open thinking” even though the topics are not simple such as the "Green Year", "Sustainable Development" or the most recent is “Renovation based on true values”.

2. How does Helly's personal perception of "Renovation based on True Values", as well as what it means and how important it is to students in the current social context?

Through the sharing sessions that I participated in, it can be seen that 70% of the questions posed by students aged 8-18 during the talks are about the impact of the pandemic on themselves, the world around them and recovery solutions. Obviously, students need to be relieved psychologically and oriented to overcome this challenging phase. Therefore, I think that this year's topic is very practical and brought up timely.

For students, renovating themselves at an early age also helps them to locate behaviors make choices that are coming from their true values. From there, they will have an overview picture of why it is necessary to renovate and innovate to be more discerning with their missions, in all situations, societies, or where they live.

3. According to Helly, how do today's young people care about community activities, build sustainable lifestyles and express their voices and responsibilities for common problems?

Empower and have faith in them!

Regarding the social contributions or solutions, in the current century, the age matter and age gap seems to be blurred. I believe that modern education reform, as VAS has brought in this event as an example, has helped children access the information about social issues and left many open doors for them, by doing so, we are creating a firm foundation for students to discover their curiosity, encouraging them to be part of the solution

In addition, when nurturing and cultivating the ability to think, solve problems, argue, be creative through the main course programme and extracurricular activities at school, they will soon become aware of their responsibilities, wisely choose their future career and make a positive impact on society.

4. If we were turning back to 10 years ago, when Helly was a high school student, what message would you send to yourself?

This is actually a difficult question! Even though I have some of not being able to do something sooner, but time is a valuable lesson for me to cherish and motivates me to work harder today. I realize that if everything was flawless, life would be less interesting. Therefore, a frequent message I do remind myself now, is to appreciate time.

For each period, a person's outlook on life will change depending on the situation. To learning with purpose right now will saves the youth a lot of time once they are grownups. To cherish time can also be interpreted as cherishing the world you are living in, it could be the water, the wind, the air; it could be the relationships with your relatives, your friends - the sacred connections between emotions and souls. Lastly, it is to adore yourself; every hour, every day we grow up is the time for us to accumulate experiences in life, in love, in creating passions and one day, these things will become a guideline for you to live kindly and properly.

5. What are the accomplishments you have in your social activities, developing sustainable growth that you would like to share with the youth as a forerunner?

Every idea is more complete when put into practice. To me, accomplishments follow the same rule, therefore it does not have a specific name or limit. I believe that the person who owns that limit is myself.

However, to be practical and proud, for me, is to witness the projects from the very beginning and growing everyday such as The Yen Concept, “Lai Day” Refill Station and “Song” Foundation.

Thank you Helly for these practical and meaningful sharing!