Originally hailing from Vietnam, Thoa Thi Thu Hoang decided to complete her PhD dissertation at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Overcoming adversity around housing, working, and parenting, Thoa is now flourishing and was recognised as one of five academic award winners at the Wellington International Student Excellence Awards in November.
The award Thoa won was for her significant PhD research into economics and data analysis that should help policy makers make decisions around seismic strengthening.
She moved to New Zealand in 2018 without knowing anyone here. “After being in Wellington for six months, I knew this would be my home so I went back to Vietnam and brought back one of my daughters, who was four at the time,” Thoa says.
Her youngest daughter, however, stayed in Vietnam and is currently being raised by Thoa’s family. While it has been immensely difficult being so far away, Thoa hopes that the impact of her research will make the separation worthwhile.
Since moving to New Zealand, Thoa has had a few major struggles – finding suitable accommodation on a tight budget, settling into a new country, raising her daughter, and juggling a part-time job with her PhD research.
Thoa says it’s her new friends who have helped her through the hard times. She has formed a tight bond with the other international students in her PhD group (who leaned on each other during the COVID-19 pandemic), along with other parents at her daughter’s school and another Vietnamese family she has grown close to.