Today, our first class was a lecture on sustainability in Vietnam, which was similar to what we learned at GreenViet yesterday. However, today we focused on learning about specific environmental issues and then later working to create solutions for these. Some specific topics that we focused on were working to reduce smog in Hanoi, increasing wind power, and solar power throughout the nation. I really resonated with the efforts to improve the environment and to fight climate change and seeing a nation that has different advantages and disadvantages in comparison to the U.S. helped make me invested. Seeing how Vietnam has not yet been able to develop nuclear power but strives to, shows the determination of the nation and the room it still has to grow. Overall, I find a nation’s passion to work hard and work to improve their country to be inspiring and extremely respectable.

After our classes, we got Italian food for lunch in a mall, which was very different from what we’ve been eating, but was very good. After lunch, we went to FPT for a company tour. We walked around the first, third, and fifth floors of the building, which were all based around an outdoor green walking area. The building’s great use of outdoor space and greenery made it feel very welcoming and not boring by any means. The buildings also featured large windows everywhere, allowing natural light in which made the inside feel natural and humane. GreenViet would be proud. Overall, this aesthetic that the buildings help achieve reaches the root of what I loved about FPT, and that is the environment they created there. Not only were the buildings welcoming and comfortable the workspaces appeared very collaborative and included fun things for employees like a coffee shop, convenience store, and ping pong tables throughout. While being a leader in software work, they also managed to create a welcoming team-oriented environment that made me more interested in the work they achieved.

After our tour, we were treated to a presentation on FPT. During this presentation, we learned how broad a company FPT is, from working on the software to the distribution of goods to education programs throughout Vietnam. As someone who is not as interested in software, this made FPT extremely exciting to me. FPT is also a Vietnamese company that has bought out other companies and expanded across the world, which made me very happy because it was exactly the kind of progress Mr. Quang talked to us about at GreenViet. This progress is further supported by the fact that FPT was the first Vietnamese company to earn over one billion USD in a fiscal year. We also learned about the creative process that they have when they go through a project, which, to me as an engineer, was very interesting to see how the engineering method is actually applied in a real-world environment. Overall, FPT created an extremely welcoming environment, and the fact that I saw GreenViet’s goals in another company was very intriguing to me.