My father's news agency regularly organized volunteer trips. Coming alongside him for the first time, I found myself in the middle of a classroom for children with learning disabilities, singing and dancing like I had never before. I became invested in service and research on the topic of neurodiversity.
THE ECHO PROJECT
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In Vietnam, neurodivergence is not a commonly discussed topic, and the persistent stereotypes that it is a mental health illness prevent many individuals from receiving adequate diagnosis and treatment.
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So I connected with 3 classmates who shared my passion and founded The Echo Project, an awareness initiative and charity/volunteer project.
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We had 3 objectives: to raise awareness, to organize social skills classes for children with neurodivergence, and to buy gifts for those children.
Minh Anh
Duong
Before opening up our social skills class, we needed to buy gifts. So we headed to Ho Guom Lake, a tourist destination, and sold Vietnam-themed tote bags and stickers to raise funds.
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We then partenered with Gia An Inclusive Education Center, a school for special needs children, to allow us two classes a week. With over $2000 collected from our sales, we bought chess sets, paintbooks, and school supplies for the kids; the rest was given to the center as a donation.
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In one of our lessons, we taught the kids how to fold clothes, and I was so impressed how Phuong, a boy with autism, folded them perfectly everytime.
our anti-bully
postcards
RESEARCH
My first venture into research was when my mom, a college professor, asked me to conduct a survey for her. Her colleague was working on a paper about the shopping behaviour of students, and she needed hands-on data.
I designed the questionaire and, with the help of my school's newspaper club, collected over 400 valid responses.
I didn't think much of it when I was done, until I saw my name in the paper's credit. It was an incredible feeling, marking my first step into research.​
And then I was like: "I want to learn more about neurodivergence, why not do research into it?" So I enrolled in a course about writing a paper on Coursera.
"In the span of 11 months, I did things I'd never thought I would. I used Scholar Google instead of the normal Google, read books from my mom's university's library, and read hundreds of newspaper. In the end, I wrote a Scientific journal about the Media framing of autistic children in Vietnam and a Research paper about Socialization programs for autistic kids.
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This experience truly opened a whole new world for me, and I aim to pursue research in my professional career."
THERAPY INTERN
In 11th grade, I had an opportunity to intern at Gia An Center's therapy support room.
I'd show up on a friday afternoon and set up the room for Ms. Nhung, a specialist who did consulting for parents of special needs children.
This internship was truly an eye-opener for me; I learned that consultant rooms like these used lamps instead of bright overhead lights, avoided sharp furniture, and even had a shelf of fidget toys.