Tran Ton Trung Son, 17, has won a scholarship to study artificial intelligence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Though it’s all too common for families in the central province of Quang Tri to give birth to physically disadvantaged children, Tran Ton Trung Son’s parents still felt it was best to leave the town where Son was discriminated against for his birth defects.

Born with badly deformed arms, Son can only use two fingers on his right hand. Son’s problems, like many of those so common in the region, have been attributed to Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant that the US military dumped by the millions of gallons on southern Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Son’s family left Quang Tri in 1992 with practically nothing, no money, no possessions, no skills or job opportunities. Son was just a baby.

When they arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, the family spent their first few weeks sleeping in District 1’s Tao Dan Park. As Son’s parents looked for work, they never would have dreamed that Son would one day study at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Peace and peddling

Son’s father, Tran Son, spent his days taking his child to different daycare centers and looking for work. Though most centers refused Son because the family could not pay, he finally found a home at the Hoa Binh (Peace) Village at Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital. Peace Village is a non-profit organization that specializes in taking care of needy children with birth defects.

With more freedom, his parents made ends meet through various odd jobs, mostly peddling wares and cooking on the street. Their only dream was for Son to get an education.

Son’s mother eventually returned to their hometown to care for her parents, but his father kept sleeping in the park and working. He visited Son every day to give him his daily bath.

When Son was seven, he and his father moved into a local hostel, as Tran Son finally had enough work to pay the bills.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Through all the misfortune, Son grew up a smart and diligent student.

When he was in the fifth-grade, Son was honored by the municipal government as one of the city’s best students. He soon entered the Tran Dai Nghia secondary school for the gifted after passing rigorous entrance exams.

In sixth grade, Son taught computer programming to himself and even got a part time job working as an apprentice at SiGlaz Vietnam – a supplier of intelligent process controls to integrated circuit manufacturers – last summer. General Director Trinh Nguyen Thieu said Son performed exceptionally during his three months with the company.

After Tran Dai Nghia, Son enrolled at the HCMC High School for the Gifted in grade 10, also after passing strict exams. He focused his studies on English, but also excelled in computer science, math and literature.

Though his father still earns little money, Son has had no trouble with school fees as he wins monthly scholarships from the school which charges almost no tuition fees.

He also won a one-year scholarship to study advanced English at the ILA Vietnam Center, one of the country’s top private English-language centers.

Most surprisingly, Son has even been able to study Taekwondo and is now a first-degree black belt at the Viet-Han Taekwondo Martial Art Club.

But most notably, Son has received a scholarship to study artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, one of the world’s leading universities. Son said he had sought out the opportunity completely on his own via the Internet, with no help from any special program.

He’ll first take a one-year pre-university course at Fairmont International Academy in California, thanks to his winning of a US$20,000- scholarship.

Books and dreams

Son said he’s always spent a lot of time reading because he never really had any good friends. Asked about his hobbies, he always replies “books.”

His favorites are mainly historical profiles of people like Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

He said these books inspired him with dreams of becoming a politician while he was in secondary school.

Other favorites include books by theoretical physicist Stephen William Hawking, Son said, adding that he was currently reading “The Universe In A Nutshell in English.”

Hawking’s influence has changed Son’s dreams from politics to science as he now hopes to become a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) after graduating college.

VietNamNet/TN/TT