Honeywell grants scholarship to six Vietnamese teachers

Six is the record number of participants from Vietnam since the first HESA participation in 2013.

HESA, an award-winning scholarship programme, created by Honeywell Hometown Solutions in partnership with USSRC, is designed to help middle school math and science teachers be more effective at teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects. Since its creation in 2004, HESA has graduated 2,576 educators from 56 countries.

Teachers participated in 45 hours of classroom and laboratory instruction focused specifically on science and space exploration. Sessions included astronaut-style exercises such as high-performance jet simulation, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival training and interactive flight dynamics programmes.

“HESA is the best personal development training I have ever received,” said Mai Thi Kim Tuyen, a teacher of Thanh Cong Secondary School in Hanoi, who has just returned from the HESA 2016. “I have learnt a lot more skills, new interesting things which are very useful for my teaching. I would like to thank Honeywell for their grant so that we had an opportunity to participate in this thoroughly practical programme.”

As a heads-up proactive teacher from Vietnam, Tuyen won the “Right Stuff” award – the mayor distinction for an individual teacher. Right Stuff is a trainee that exemplifies the characteristics of courage, self-sacrificing in nature, integrity, and excellence.

“I am very pleased to see the outbreak rise in the number of Vietnamese finalists this year. It shows that Vietnamese teachers are more interested in and better known about the programme. I believe that teachers – well-equipped with new techniques, methods for teaching challenging subjects like math and science – will inspire today’s students to become the STEM leaders of the future,” said Mai Trang Thanh, president of Honeywell Indochina. “The beneficiaries of the programme are ultimately thousands of children who come in their classrooms, and Vietnam’s society and economy in broader scale. This is Honeywell’s commitment to accompany with Vietnam’s sustainable development that we always head to.”

To date, more than three million students have benefited from the invaluable teaching techniques gained from HESA.