To the one,who has an insatiable thirst for knowledge..

It was fate, destiny or anything else, that we may choose to say. I was a volunteer from my company to a NGO which supports young adults to become employable, by teaching them vocational skills,in Danang, Vietnam. The teacher at the school, where we were going was a young educator named Oanh, who was assigned to us, as we had to have translation of our course in local language. We connected over email and after realizing that it is really hard work in preparing for the 2 days of classes with Oanh (our teacher from the NGO), me and my colleague, finally met her in Danang. The classes went well and I ended up going 2 more times for different assignments to Danang. During these times, I interacted a lot with all the students and teachers and Oanh was my local culturist too, in her free time. She helped me to understand the life in Vietnam from a local perspective and I also came to know about her as a person.

To say that I was impressed by her, is an understatement. She was a methodical, systematic teacher-that I came to know very quickly. What I also learned, was her motivation for doing social work. Coming from a family of teachers, she was working in a big city of Vietnam and then decided to come to her to her hometown, to work in the NGO. I was struck by her hunger to learn and make it applicable to her profile, as an educator. She asked me many questions about learning and development in our company and also how she can enhance her skills in this field, so that she can help the students, supported by the NGO. I was more than happy to share my experience and then I came back to Singapore and forgot all about the stint in Danang, for a while.

Oanh connected with me on LinkedIn and Facebook and from time to time will send me messages on some questions, she had or recommendations for books or movies or sometimes psychometric assessments. Her thirst for knowledge was immense and I was more than happy to help her with my suggestions and resources. Every time, she would come back to me with her feedback and questions on those.Then, one day,she sent me a message that she has been selected for a Master’s degree in Education by Taipei University on full scholarship. She kept in touch during her years in Masters and we also had some coaching sessions on her topics of interest and getting her ready for her life back in the NGO in her home town, after her course was over.

Imagine my pride when she sent me the news, that after completion of her Masters degree, she has been selected as an honorary member of the society by National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

Her story led me to think hard about us, in corporate life. Most of the corporate dwellers are privileged in the sense that we have enough and more resources to up grade ourselves, get to learn new things, have the exposure and the opportunity to really put them in practice. But in most cases, we still need to entice, “market the offers” or pull a number of employees to use the resources, which are available to them, as part of their employment, mostly at zero cost to them. Some countries have generous schemes for their citizens to upgrade for future skills and the government again has to market it extensively for people to upgrade their skills and improve “their” employability.

Some employees are definitely proactive, but for many people, they take it for granted. In fact, I have come across people who think they training and development is a burden in addition to their day-to-day work and show interest, only if they can see a tangible outcome in terms of career growth and promotion, in the short run. The question of “what’s in it for me”is often asked and I always wonder- “ Isn’t it obvious?”

When I come across someone like Oanh, I am forced to think, whether we should really only invest in people, who take the initiatives themselves, who understand the importance of continued education in the “long run”and its applicability in daily life ( may be not immediately) and have this insatiable need to satisfy their thirst for knowledge. Those are the ones, who, in my opinion, can make a difference to society and to our future, as advanced human beings.

The curiosity, the ability to accept that we may not know everything and to feel that it’s perfectly ok to not be a “know all”, and most importantly, reach out to people who may help us improve ourselves, are definitely some of the things that will move all of us forward in the right direction.

This is my ode, not only to Oanh (who continues to inspire me), but also to all the ones, who embody all of the above and much more.