Day 2 started off similarly to day 1 in terms of breakfast, more pho and fried rice with some coffee and I was feeling energetic and excited about what this new day would bring. We headed over to UEF to start learning about the history behind the Mekong Delta and some of the contributions, challenges, and goals that the Mekong Delta region has for the future. It was really intriguing seeing the insight that the UEF professor had to offer as he’s lived in Vietnam his whole life and could give a great amount of personal background information. We then went into a language class and learned the letters of the alphabet along with some greetings and goodbyes. It was pretty difficult because there are so many different ways to say a letter since there were so many different accent marks the could be used, but it was fun to try and master the language. Also everyone got a name in Vietnamese, and I was given the name Long, pronounced like “Laum”.

We then had our first site visit at GreenViet, and it was really interesting to see the company’s different values compared to a lot of American and large corporations that I know of. Something that makes GreenViet successful in my opinion is the fact that they value honesty, loyalty, and cooperation. GreenViet is a small company that focuses on efficiency and tries to do a lot with a little. They make sure that they keep their costs low so that their profits stay high instead of trying to increase their revenue by a lot. GreenViet is also a very local company and they try and do most of their projects within Vietnam, with some of them being outside the country in other south East Asian countries. Finally, the co-founder, Mr. Quang, had a really interesting upbringing into his professional life. He started off with learning civil engineering in school, and then went into getting his MBA because he felt like he couldn’t do what he wanted with just the engineering background. This really resonated with me because I feel like if I just get my MBA, I won’t be able to get where I want, so I should try and do more stuff relating to where I want to go in life.

It feels like every day in Vietnam is getting better, and I’m super excited about what the next day holds every single day.