Yanik Nyberg (Class of 2013)‘s original research about the potential for using seawater to grow sustainable food crops as a way to utilise degraded and marginalised land has developed into Seawater Solutions, a unique startup that teaches farmers how to grow crops using water from a source which won’t run out – the sea. Based in Glasgow, the start up is looking to expand their scope to Asia next year.

This quick film from Reuters gives the latest updates about Yanik’s project.

Yanik’s time at UNIS and, subsequently, at universities in Scotland has fostered a passion for sustainable agriculture in the context of food security and climate change. Through pilot projects in Scotland and South Asia, Yanik’s team hopes to develop the blueprints for seawater farming systems that can be applied to most coastal regions around the world for food production and the creation of wetland habitats and coastal defence against seawater intrusion.

For more background on the project, check out this feature from Uniquely UNIS Summer 2018 Edition.

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

As Amy Lau (Class of 2009) puts ‘Live/Play’ by Riot Games as the film components for her Year 9 students’ English class: More Than A Game, she reflects on her journey in esports, the 10-year anniversary of League of Legends and its significance to her as both a secondary school teacher and a gamer.

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of League of Legends. Scrolling through my Twitter feed, it has been a joy to see and share in other people’s reflections on the 10 years of League of Legends.

Video games have always been a big part of my life. There is no doubt about that. It may sound cliché to say that League of Legends has changed my life, but it has certainly done that and more.

I started my esports journey in 2013 as a journalist for Team Dignitas. The opportunity to interview professional players who I admired was a thrilling experience. However, they were all overseas and given that communication was limited to Skype and emails, the disconnect was real.

In 2014, I took up the role as the Lead News Writer for Team Immunity. Despite Australia’s professional esports scene being in its infancy, I jumped at the opportunity to be involved at a more localised level, knowing the logistics of it would be more tangible. I vividly recall the very first time I covered an event for their League of Legends team. It was in a cramped venue situated on St. Kilda Road with barely any room for the players to compete, let alone for an audience to spectate.

Little did I know that it was that day, in that stuffy venue, that I would meet people I would call friends for life.

From then onwards, we would go on to form the Chiefs Esports Club and I signed on as their Team Manager. The formation of the Oceanic Professional League led us to compete in overseas tournaments such as the International Wildcard Qualifier. As with anything that you’re strongly passionate about, there were many celebrations, sleepless nights, frustrations, and tears.

Eventually, I did reach a point in my life where I had to make a difficult choice. Esports as a career had to be put aside and I accepted that it was time to start the next phase of my life.

It was time for a new adventure.

A few years ago, if someone had told me that esports and education would not only just co-exist on the same sphere but thrive, well, I would have entertained that thought as nothing more than an idealistic dream.

Today I sit here, on the eve of my 28th birthday, reflecting on my journey in esports and as a secondary school teacher. This year, I chose ‘Live/Play’ by Riot Games as the film components for the Year 9 English Unit: More Than A Game. I had the opportunity to invite industry professionals in esports, who I also have the privilege of calling my friends, to my school to present their story.

As a gamer and an educator, it has been exhilarating to share that part of my life with my students and to show them that the qualities that exist within traditional sport – teamwork, passion, resilience and building meaningful relationships – can transcend into esports.

Amy Lau
Class of 2009

Amy is an Action Research Grant Recipient, who is undertaking a collaborative research project funded by the Australian Research Council with the Australian Catholic University, Marcellin College, Macquarie University and University College London, while teaching Year 7-11 in a Secondary School in Melbourne, Australia and tutoring English and Piano. 

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Ruby Davies (Class of 2013) started the blog Endo and me, sis in order to raise awareness for endometriosis and the effects it can have on people’s lives. Endometriosis is a condition where endometriotic tissue (very similar to the cells forming the uterine/womb lining) is located elsewhere in the body causing tenderness, extreme pain during the monthly period and other long-term effects. Endometriosis affects 1 in 10 women worldwide (that’s over 176,000,000!) and is currently incurable. However there are lifestyle and medical adjustments that can help lessen its impact on life.

Having been diagnosed with endometriosis in 2014, in the blog posts, Ruby discusses her experiences with endometriosis, as well as the tips and tricks adopted after over 10+ years living with the condition. Ruby shared: “I find the blog therapeutic as it also holds me accountable for my own holistic treatment plan – I have to take care of myself in order to practice what I preach. The blog has followings on Facebook and Instagram, with over 1,500+ supporters.  Through the blog itself, as well as the social media platforms, I have already made friends with fellow endometriosis warriors across the world. The support from them, as well as my friends and family has been truly overwhelming. I cannot wait to see where things go from here!”

Ruby graduated from the University of Dundee in 2017 and from the University of Edinburgh this last May and is currently a trainee lawyer at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm.

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Eunji (Scarlett) Park (Class of 2013) had a chance to meet Ban Ki Moon in person (again, first time was at UNIS Hanoi in 2010) when she attended the European Alpbach Forum in Austria as a Ban Ki-moon Global Citizen’s Scholar this summer. The scholarships are provided to individuals who were working on community-level projects in alignment with the SDGs.

In 2017 Eunji structured a project with Asian Development Bank to provide clean drinking water by utilizing rainwater harvesting methods for societies with limited accessibility to tap water in Marinig, Laguna, Philippines (SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation). Eunji shared: “I was working in a community where ‘25 households gathered $400 in 5 years to install 4 water pumps’. I still cannot forget these words and promised myself to go back to these locals with solutions for better drinking water.”

Eunji first met Ban Ki-moon when he came to visit UNIS Hanoi in 2010. Ban Ki-moon’s speech at UNIS Hanoi encouraged her to follow interest in international affairs. At the European Alpbach Forum, as a Ban Ki-Moon Global Citizen Scholar, Eunji finally had the chance to tell Ban Ki-Moon in person about her adventure and how he inspired her passion.

Eunji is pursuing a Master’s Degree in ‘Environment and Development’ at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also planning to scale her project by coordinating with relevant organizations and ultimately launch the project by 2020 after undergoing consultation and field research. Eunji wishes to connect with Alumni who has expertise in water or is currently residing in the Philippines.

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Louisa de Wet (Class of 2010) has been recognised for her work by visiting Assistant UN Secretary General, Anita Bhatia, during a high-level delegation mission in Uganda.

Louisa works as a Monitoring and Evaluation officer at UN Women, the UN agency dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment at a global level. With a strong academic background and penchant for research, Louisa’s primary role is to monitor and assess the impact and results of UN Women’s work across five priority areas in Uganda.

“The UN does incredible work across the world, and a lot of my commitment to the organisation comes from UNIS Hanoi’s focus on sustainability, life-long learning and the sense of community that the school fosters”. Louisa describes her time at UNIS Hanoi with fond recollection – “I was actively involved in extracurricular activities like Habitat for Humanity, which allowed me to work alongside and together with local communities in meaningful and impactful ways”.

Her passion for gender issues and women’s rights grew from experiencing and witnessing first-hand how women are consistently and systematically oppressed across the world, irrespective of culture, demographic group, socioeconomic status or geographic locality. “No country in the world has accomplished gender equality, and I have made it my mission and calling in life to address the structural and social inequalities that prevent women and girls from equal opportunities”.

Louisa has a bachelor’s in International Relations from Southampton University (UK) and a master’s degree in Development Studies from Lund University in Sweden.

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Duy Nguyen (Class of 2006) started the page Closer to Earth as an initiative to share actionable steps that everyone could take to make a positive impact on our planet, whether it’s going zero waste, ideas/ works that turned single used wastes into useful items or projects.

Duy shared, “I really believe that one of the best ways to help raise awareness is that we just have to start with ourselves. We run an e-commerce business selling children’s products, and it really bothered me seeing the amount of packaging waste that would accumulate over time. Since we already have an audience of thousands of customers and growing, I thought there’s no better way to spread the words through our products. Starting October 2019, we will start to replace our current packaging to using the reusable pouch for packaging and D2W biodegradable mailer bags and will continue to find ways to address the problem.”

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Sofia and Erik Cunelius (Alumni Faculty/Staff) found out that Linnea Niklasson (Class of 2019) was coming back to Sweden after graduating in May 2019 and organized a mini reunion in their home in Stockholm. Sofia was Linnea’s Swedish teacher at UNIS Hanoi in Grade 6 and 7 and her husband Erik Cunelius was the soccer coach during this period. Linnea got to meet Sofia and Erik’s two new family members while talking memories. Sofia is working at an IB school in Stockholm.

Every week we feature a short profile or an activity from our global alumni community in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Daphne de Leeuw (Class of 2009) wrote to share that she started working at CIS from January 2019. As the Events Coordinator in the Higher Education Service area, Daphne coordinates and organizes annual events for CIS Higher Education, among which are the CIS Institutes, school and university fairs in Europe and the CIS Global Forum on International Admission and Guidance 2019.

Having worked at large corporations prior to CIS, Daphne shares, “I honestly did not foresee that I would be working within the Education industry, as hospitality and events were really my career ambitions. Nevertheless, when I saw the vacancy at CIS as an Events Coordinator, the fit could not have been more perfect! […] Seeing as I had several years of experience as an events manager in combination with having an international background, I am able to give ‘something back’ to the community and be a better global citizen. It is really a great joy to work for CIS!”

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

My Tran (Class of 2014) won the 2019 Chautauqua Janus Prize for their story “Tree rings, like concentric ghosts”.

My Tran (Class of 2014) attends Brown University in Providence where they identify as a cross-genre/gender artist making sculptures and performances.

Impossible to summarize or categorize, and touching on everything from longing and loss to theories of language, consciousness, and time, “Tree rings, like concentric ghosts” is featured in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of Black Warrior Review and was nominated by its editors for the Prize.

Started in 2018, each year the Chautauqua Janus Prize celebrates one emerging writer’s single work of short fiction or nonfiction for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder literary conventions, historical narratives and readers’ imaginations.

As the winner My will receive a summer residency at Chautauqua during the 2019 summer season where My will present a public lecture and reading at a celebratory event. My’s writing will also appear in a future issue of the Literary Journal Chautauqua.

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Brendan McGibbon (Alumni Faculty) wrote to share about his most recent project – an AI character that can help in the classroom. Read Brendan’s message below:

“Hello from Japan!

I left UNIS about 4.5 years ago and I really miss my friends there and of course – beautiful Vietnam. I left because I was offered the opportunity, with my wife Izumi, to start a new boarding school in Japan and design a 3- year stand alone leadership course that focuses on Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship. It has gone really well and it’s now the cornerstone of the school ethos. I think the school wide leadership course is really unique and would love to share it far and wide.

Right now my most recent personal Leadership project is starting to take off. I am focusing on how we might use AI in the classroom to help students think through difficult problems when they get stuck. I created the character TIVI and he is helping people in two ways. Firstly I am writing some good old fashioned graphic novels aimed at creating a growth mindset in elementary students and help reframe challenges as opportunities to learn about themselves and secondly I have created a fun conversation bot. When I have enough data I will refine it and begin the laborious work of coding the AI. 

Here is the link to the Kindbot Beta TIVI: https://landbot.io/u/H-140105-20LRFAH93KRY9Y0I/index.html

I’m at 500 users now and growing. Each time someone uses it it can be refined and expanded to learn more scenarios and I can program more features. Try it out.
I wish UNIS well and please reach out if you are in Japan – want to know more about the leadership program (Gr10-12) or my AI project.

Kind Regards,
Brendan McGibbon”

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Brendan McGibbon (Alumni Faculty) wrote to share about his most recent project – an AI character that can help in the classroom. Read Brendan’s message below:

“Hello from Japan!

I left UNIS about 4.5 years ago and I really miss my friends there and of course – beautiful Vietnam. I left because I was offered the opportunity, with my wife Izumi, to start a new boarding school in Japan and design a 3- year stand alone leadership course that focuses on Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship. It has gone really well and it’s now the cornerstone of the school ethos. I think the school wide leadership course is really unique and would love to share it far and wide.

Right now my most recent personal Leadership project is starting to take off. I am focusing on how we might use AI in the classroom to help students think through difficult problems when they get stuck. I created the character TIVI and he is helping people in two ways. Firstly I am writing some good old fashioned graphic novels aimed at creating a growth mindset in elementary students and help reframe challenges as opportunities to learn about themselves and secondly I have created a fun conversation bot. When I have enough data I will refine it and begin the laborious work of coding the AI. 

Here is the link to the Kindbot Beta TIVI: https://landbot.io/u/H-140105-20LRFAH93KRY9Y0I/index.html

I’m at 500 users now and growing. Each time someone uses it it can be refined and expanded to learn more scenarios and I can program more features. Try it out.
I wish UNIS well and please reach out if you are in Japan – want to know more about the leadership program (Gr10-12) or my AI project.

Kind Regards,
Brendan McGibbon”

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Linh Lan Dover Arthur (Class of 2002) and family is coming back to Hanoi this April to deliver the funds raised at her wedding in support Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation.
As part of her wedding celebration on 16 March in Sydney, Australia, instead of gifts or money, Linh Lan and her husband Ben set up a personal fundraiser on a crowd raising platform and asked the guests to donate to Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, hoping to raise AUD 1,603 to mark the date.

The couple proudly shared that AUD 7,000 was raised as a result, “We are very happy that this money will go to helping street kids, and those affected by trafficking, AIDS and disabilities as well as help put those in need through school and rehabilitation.” Linh Lan and Ben and their children are living in Australia. They plan to be back in Hanoi this Spring for a small celebration with friends and family in Hanoi and to deliver the funds to Blue Dragon.

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Linh Nguyen (Class of 2018) was selected to receive one of the Vanderbilt University’s Nichols Humanitarian Fund Awards to help improve health care access and education system in Ban Lien, an impoverished, geographically-challenged region in Lao Cai, Vietnam. Thanks to the support from the Fund, Linh will be travelling back to Vietnam in summer 2019 to allocate the granted funds alongside SANSE, the Service Learning group co-founded by Linh during her time at UNIS Hanoi. A former UNIS Hanoi scholar, Linh is pursuing a double degree in the field of Communications and Human and Organisational Development at Vanderbilt University on a full scholarship. The merit- and need-based Nichols Humanitarian Fund is awarded to service-based projects proposed by students to address an area of need of a community, domestic or international.

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!

Ellen Beard (Class of 2013) is working as the lead programme assitant of Redeeming Love, a safe house and holistic recovery programme for sex trafficking survivors in Southern California. “I work directly with residents [of the safe house] to encourage movement toward healing and their future life goals. I’ve been learning about the issue of human trafficking and I discovered sex trafficking as one of the darkest and most troubling injustices I’ve come across, and it is far more common than we realize,” Ellen shares. With this cause in mind, Ellen took on the creative challenge of wearing a dress during each of the 31 days of December 2018 for her personal fundraising campaign “December Dresses” to support Redeeming Love. Ellen’s goal is to raise $750 USD, the cost of mental health services for one survivor, “I decided to start my own page because I know Redeeming Love well and truly believe in the kind of healing it pursues. We focus on quality, highly-personalized support over quantity of individuals reached.” Check out Ellen’s donation page here or ask Ellen a question to keep the conversation going and raise awareness about this hidden problem.

Every week we feature a short profile of one of our global alumni in Tin Tuc. UNIS Hanoi is connected to 55% of all alumni students, families and faculty with our very own world wide web connecting UNIS Hanoi in the four corners of the globe!