The Team

Lan

Vietnam

Age: 16
School: Kim Lien High School, Vietnam
Field of study/Interests: Molecular biology and human anatomy
Role: Content writing, translations

Hello, my name is Lan and I’m 16 years old. I’m studying at Kim Lien High school in Vietnam. My hobbies are reading, listening to music and eating chocolate (I eat so much that my friends often call me ‘fat cat’). I’m extremely interested in molecular biology and human anatomy. I want to be a biologist or a medical doctor in the future, though my friends have stated firmly that they can make huge profits from running burial services when collaborating with my surgeries! At the moment, my dream is to help Vietnam, my homeland, catch up with other countries in the world, as well as introduce Vietnam to my international friends.

Unlike some of my teammates, this is the first time I have a chance to take part in an international contest. Honestly, I felt very worried at first, about not being capable of getting my duty done and not being able to catch up with my teammates. However, as soon as I got started with the project, my worries seemed to disappear. My incredible teammates have helped me get through the problem with their amazing creativity, dedication and inspiration. Looking back, I can’t even believe that we’ve just known each other for six months! This is also the first time I’ve had the chance to work with such talented, motivated and funny teenagers. The barriers of geography, culture and language were all gone, and throughout the six months of working together, we gained an appreciable friendship and the desire to improve ourselves. This helped us to collaborate effectively and create “All Ground Up!” as you can see here. My role in the team was to write a part of the content for the site as well as to translate it into Vietnamese. I feel very proud as this is the first time a Vietnamese site has ever participated in ThinkQuest. When initially taking on the Beans to Brew part, I was very bored since I had to spend the whole day reading about topics such as coffee roasting and grinding, how to tamp Espresso correctly, or get the right temperature for brewing. I had never known the first thing about those things. But as I kept on writing and doing research, I started to feel more excited about the subject, and finally ended up enjoying it! As a result, now I only drink drip-brewed coffee (check the site if you want to know more about it), and enjoy sitting like an elder with my coffee cup! I also go crazy when hearing the word “coffee” from news on TV, and my friends have been wondering why I can talk endlessly about coffee crises in class!

From doing my share of work, I’ve gained knowledge that simply cannot be measured: the writing skills, work organisation, teamwork and, of course, knowledge about coffee. Since taking part in ThinkQuest, I’ve always been pressed for time, but I enjoy that state of “being busy.” I felt that I was using up all my time effectively.

I would like to express my gratefulness to Ngoc, my friend, who encouraged me to take part in ThinkQuest and experience that wonderful time. She’s also the one who assisted me and helped me to solve nearly all my problem throughout the process. Likewise, I want to say thanks to all my fellow teammates, Sigit, Ben and Ammu, those who have always stood by me, rubbed off on me with their enthusiasm and the willingness to keep going. I would like to thank Mrs. Carol Calderwood and Mr. James Poirier for the dedicated insight, sympathy and encouragement they gave us, despite their lack of time. My special thanks to Carol, my coach but also my friend, who always gave me the encouragement and confidence to work during the process.

I want to show my gratefulness to my family – my mom, who always encouraged me (and who paid all the ‘much higher than usual’ electric bills). My thanks to dad and granny for Internet access and their belief in me. My family has truly been a great support to me through this competition.

Lastly, I want to say my big thanks to ThinkQuest for having created such a great event, enabling students from all around the world to come together, exploring different cultures and affirming themselves. Thank you for visiting our site. Hope that this site will be a useful and exciting address for you all!

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