Letter to students from VAS’s Executive Chairman

Ho Chi Minh City, September 5th, 2020

Dear all my beloved students,

I am delighted to welcome all of you to the new school year 2020-2021, especially those who have just joined our VAS home! I hope you will get along well with this new school where you can enjoy eventful moments and plentiful excitement every day in your student life. It is my and more than 1,000 VAS teachers’ mission to serve and nurture a stimulatingly positive, safe, warm and caring learning environment where each and every one of you can happily learn and develop.

With that in mind, all of our staff have been working so hard to get everything ready for the new school year and, at the same time, working on plans to minimize the risks caused by Covid-19. Looking around, you can see that we are far more fortunate than people in many other countries in the world. This is thanks to the consensus among our citizens, the Government and the whole community, all determined to best control and fight against the pandemic. In order for you and other children to be able to go to school safely, thousands of soldiers have been watching our borders day and night, thousands of nurses and doctors are on the front lines working around the clock to save lives, and your parents, too, are exerting themselves each day to maintain their family's income. I hope you will appreciate and be grateful for all those sacrifices and take them as a memorable experience and a valuable lesson in your life.

My dear students,

We take this new school year as a good opportunity to set high expectations for you, the excellent generations of VAS students, who are compassionate and eager to learn. I couldn’t be more proud of the achievements you have gained over the past year in both MOET and Cambridge programmes. On top of that, we have come together to build a “Green School Year” with dozens of meaningful activities. With the "VASers for the Community" programme going along with the "VAS Green Day Run" event, we have planted thousands of trees across Vietnam. Tens of sharing sessions have been offered through “VAS Talks” series and hundreds of propaganda artworks have been contributed by students through the “Painting contest” and "Green Corner" project. Joining our hands together, we have reduced a significant amount of waste, energy and resource consumption on our seven campuses and also in our own houses.

Though global restrictions of travel, exploitation and production during Covid-19 have inadvertently opened chances for the nature to recover, the wildlife and natural resources of the Earth still face many challenges. Only 17% of wildlife is left, all tropical rainforests are at risk of disappearing by 2100 and climate change is leading to droughts, erratic floods and possible submergence of 30 coastal cities. To serve the living needs of 7.5 billion people around the globe, the Earth incurs an additional 2.12 billion tons of waste and 5 trillion plastic bags each year. There is indeed one and only one solution to save the Earth and us as humans, that is SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – the development of a society at the time being that still ensures its continued development in the distant future.

Sustainable Development - The only solution for the future

What VASers have done in recent times is not yet enough. Future generations need us! We need your hands to promote SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT! This is also the theme following the “Green Year” project which we will continue to pursue. The positive spirit, practical initiatives and effective activities of the "Green Year" will still be maintained and promoted, in addition to enhancing social responsibility, awareness of environmental protection and conservation of cultures and traditions.

Above all, what I really want to emphasize is that we humans are, first and foremost, creatures and that we cannot survive if separated from the cycle of nature. There is a myth that we humans are King, standing high above all species and we have the right to possess, to kill, and force all species to serve our needs. Today, I do hope we are all fully aware that all species are interdependent, always promoting, constraining, depending upon each other to exist and develop, and together making life eternal on Earth! We are part of the nature and we must carry out the mission to retain a balanced life for both nature and our descendants. 

A new school year is opening new doors to much new knowledge and excitement. I hope you will embrace it with initiative, positivity and willingness to enrich your life full of exciting experiences because you won’t be 13 or 17 a second time in life. 

To conclude, always understand that all of us, including our teachers, staff, security guards, nannies, drivers, maintenance staff and I are here, ready to give our utmost support to make you feel that you are appreciated, accepted and safe. Let’s accomplish the school year with confidence and conquer your personal goals!

I wish you and your families good health and peace!

Sincerely yours,

Marcel van Miert
VAS Executive Chairman