Message from VAS Executive Chairman to students on the occasion of new school year 2021-2022
Good morning, my dear students,
Welcome to the opening ceremony of the new school year 2021-2022. I’m so delighted to see you all healthy and safe these days!
Ho Chi Minh City has just gone through 3 months of lockdown and it may be extended for quite a while. I am sure that you and your family have been confronting some anxiety and a lot of challenges to try to keep your life as normal as possible, while maintaining your physical and mental health in this particularly hard time. Therefore, I highly appreciate the readiness and the responsibility you have taken for each of your classes and for your learning throughout these past 2 weeks.
Message from VAS Executive Chairman to students on the occasion of new school year 2021-2022
I am sure you feel that, the happiness and the positive energy from seeing back your teachers and friends and being able to unlock new knowledge with them have stirred in you, in us, a hope for better days, and a brighter future.
I hope the pandemic will soon be under control with broad vaccine access and strong herd immunity. I hope that life will return to normal soon – when you can go to school, reunite with your loved ones, enjoy your favorite food and travel to the places you love. I also hope that all your plans for the future, your passions and aspirations that you have recognized and pursued, will soon come true.
At the time when we are weak, stuck and confused; wisdom, resiliance and hope become our lifelines and the forces that moves us forward. If there is a will, there is a way!
However, hope is not built from daydreams but from a strong foundation of initiative and perseverance.
To do this, in this current period, we all need to look back into ourselves, into yourself, focus on your inner strengths, competencies and personal qualities - the immutable values that create one’s own identity and are the guide for each person’s perception and action. In which, enhancing the ability to be independent, adaptable and responsible towards family, relatives, community or towards new goals in learning and in life... are typical examples.
This is also the theme of this new school year: "RENOVATION BASED ON TRUE VALUES". "Renovation" here means renewing and developing oneself, family, organization, community... based on sustainable values, which are not changed in every circumstance and throughout time.
Like a forest that has just experienced a natural disaster, if every seed and every sapling has the motivation to rise up, sprout and head for the sun, soon we will have a cluster of trees, a wood and then revive an entire forest. That is also how we renovate our life after the pandemic, building strong communities based on the core elements which consist of each individual, each unit, and each family. From a closer perspective, a part of VAS’s sustainably developing future lies in the efforts of each teacher, each staff member, each parent and each student in the coming time!
Therefore, my dear students, from now on, set your goals in study or in life, whether they are small or big, short-term or long-term, to persistently pursue them and nurture your own dreams! One day you will realize how much willpower and perseverance have led you to break the limits and grow up strongly...
Lastly however, I would like to wish you and your family good health and peace, and we look forward to welcoming you back to school in the near future!
Sincerely yours,
Marcel van Miert
VAS Executive Chairman
