Vietnamese woman graduates from Harvard master's program with perfect GPA

At the convocation ceremony on May 27, Nguyen Do Thu Phuong wore a sash decorated with the map of Vietnam. "I'm especially proud to wear something even more meaningful than my diploma on my chest: my homeland."

The 25-year-old is an alumna of Bao Loc High School for the Gifted in Lam Dong Province. Before enrolling at Harvard in 2024, she completed dual degrees in Nursing from VinUniversity and International Economics from the Foreign Trade University in Vietnam.

The nearly 30-hour flight to Harvard was her first trip abroad.

After landing, she spent nearly an hour figuring out how to book a ride, only to end up at the wrong address because a neighboring city had the exact same street name and house number.

"When I finally made it to my correct address, I collapsed into bed from exhaustion, but I was also incredibly excited because my dream had finally come true," she recalled.

Her arrival kicked off a period of intense adjustment. In classrooms filled with peers from around the world, Phuong initially struggled to keep up with discussions because she was unfamiliar with the wide range of global English accents.

To ensure she never missed an important lesson, she recorded lectures, used AI to transcribe them, and spent hours reading supplementary materials. After a successful first semester, she set a new goal for herself: graduating with a perfect GPA.

Outside the classroom, she immersed herself in the history and cultures of her classmates' home countries, which gave her more ground for discussions and helped her better understand different perspectives. She noted that the passion for learning extended well beyond the classroom, with everyone always willing to help one another step by step.

After completing her first year, Phuong returned to Vietnam to visit Sa Pa in the northern highlands. There, she reconnected with children she had met through a volunteer project and conducted research on the psychological impact of early marriage among H'Mong ethnic women.

Nguyen Do Thu Phuong (R) with a family in Sa Pa whose children learned English with Phuong in a volunteer project in 2025. Photo coutersy of Phuong

Her thesis found that much of their emotional trauma stemmed from social pressure and gender stereotypes. It also concluded that recovery was often influenced more by respected community members than by traditional clinical interventions.

"I thought I already understood this community after spending three years with them," Phuong said. "But it wasn't until I conducted dozens of interviews that I realized these psychological wounds were real, yet had never been properly acknowledged."

This topic was the focus of her Harvard application essay in 2024. She is continuing to develop the research with the aim of proposing practical, real-world solutions.

Christina Lively, Associate Director of Education Programs at the Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, described Phuong as hardworking, dedicated, and deeply committed to her studies, adding that her perfect GPA was a well-deserved reward for her perseverance.

"Beyond her outstanding academic performance, we are proud of how much Phuong has grown as a researcher and global health scholar," Lively said. "We look forward to the positive contributions she will make to the field."

Phuong is seeking opportunities in health research and hopes to return to Vietnam soon to continue her work with underserved communities.

At an earlier ceremony, Phuong devoted part of her speech to thanking her parents in Vietnamese, "for giving me the courage to learn everything you never had the chance to learn," calling them her "greatest teachers."