Young people in the territory of... veterans
At the end of 2025, the name Dr. Vo Van Son was mentioned by cultural researchers when he and 2 colleagues who are lecturers at Tien Giang University (ĐHTG) launched an impressive monograph. The impression is not only due to the thick work (more than 500 pages), but because in "Culture - Literature and Tourism in the Contemporary Research Context", Vo Van Son and his colleagues for the first time combined 3 seemingly separate fields: culture - literature - tourism into a single interdisciplinary dialogue space.
There, tourism is not just a movement and experience activity, but a meeting point for memories and cultural practices in contemporary life. And literature is like a place to anchor and create memories, contributing to forming a "symbolic identity" for the land, creating depth for sustainable tourism development.
Following that, Dr. Vo Van Son was awarded the prize by the Vietnam Folklore Arts Association for the work: "Tien Giang Market from a cultural perspective". The fact that a young person (born in 1987) like Vo Van Son achieved this achievement is a phenomenon because this is considered the "territory" of veterans, requiring long-term accumulation and deep penetration...
Comet against the wind
Like a kite flying against the wind, when cornered by difficulties, Vo Van Son's inner strength spreads its wings, reaching high and flying far. Born into a purely agricultural family with 7 siblings in Binh Trung commune (Tien Giang province, now Dong Thap), Vo Van Son's childhood was a series of days of lack of food and clothing.
When Vo Van Son was in 5th grade, life was too difficult, his parents switched to raising ducks to run fields, wandering around the fields. Seeing Son's eagerness to learn, the family sent him to live with his grandmother (Vo Thi Hai) to go to school. But his grandmother's family situation was also extremely difficult, so even though she was old (born in 1930), she still had to do all kinds of jobs alone to support herself. "He both went to school and had to catch snails and pick field vegetables to sell for money to buy notebooks" - Mrs. Hai proudly said about Son.
But after only a few years, the duck farming movement in the neighborhood subsided, Vo Van Son switched to helping with housework and began a journey of sweating and tears... In one instance of refusing to catch young birds on the nest for the owner's child to play, Son was scolded by his young master who was about the age of his younger brother. After that, because he defended his child, the owner even scolded him harshly.
“At that time, I was eating rice, and tears naturally flowed...” - Vo Van Son looked up with his eyes looking into the distance as if trying to keep his heart's wound from bleeding again.
But fate is still not over the challenges. Just admitted to Can Tho University in the desired major, before he could rejoice, Son received bad news: Mother's kidney disease broke out, needing 5 million VND for urgent surgery. That is too large a number for the family struggling to make ends meet. Leaving aside the dream of university, through acquaintances, Vo Van Son went to Saigon to help with work to have money to help his mother with medicine. Fortunately, thanks to the kind owner who supported the costs, Son worked diligently to repay his kindness.
Busy, but Vo Van Son still burns the dream of the lecture hall. Every time he is free, he brings books out to study. Once, caught by his boss, Son was stunned because he was afraid of being fired. But surprisingly, the boss just gently said: "You want to continue studying so much?! Hearing the friendly voice, Son vented all his dreams. After listening, the boss promised to create conditions.
That year, Vo Van Son passed the pedagogical major of UMTG in the 2006-2010 academic year. After graduating, being kept by the school, like a fish in water, Son threw himself into studying and researching. Just completed his Doctorate in Cultural Studies (2024), and participated in implementing 10 provincial and grassroots-level scientific research topics; published 50 scientific articles that achieved ISSN and ISBN indexes... Vo Van Son also researched and found positive and modern teaching organization methods, such as: presiding over the CDIO approach method, directly teaching using e-learning, deploying software as well as online teaching models.
Thereby helping students learn personal skills, communication, product creation, processes and systems along with specialized knowledge, allowing students to use dual time to both learn knowledge and learn skills. This not only promotes students' autonomy, innovates the relationship between teachers and learners in the direction of cooperation, connecting lessons with practice, but also contributes to bringing the human resources of UM to meet social requirements...
Dr. Vo Van Son always shows a spirit of eagerness to learn, research, and creative application of information technology to build electronic lesson plans, update practice into lectures to make lessons more lively and attractive, and improve teaching quality. Especially very enthusiastic and enthusiastic about movements and activities for the community, inspiring officials, union members, and youth to strive to study...", please borrow the words of Dr. Le Thi Kim Loan - Vice Rector, Chairwoman of the Grassroots Trade Union of DHTG University - to conclude this article as a message about "a kite flying against the wind": If you have willpower and aspiration... everyone can overcome difficulties to overcome fate like Party member Vo Van Son has gone through and is continuing to move forward.
