Moraine Valley student Phuong Tran receives $25,000 scholarship to study biomedical engineering at IIT.
Phuong Tran, a student at Moraine Valley Community College, was recently named the recipient of a scholarship to the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, where she will study biomedical engineering. She will be pursuing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in an accelerated program and will receive a $25,000 scholarship for each of the three years she will be in the program. Tran hopes to eventually pursue a PhD.
Tran is an international student from Vietnam, who will complete her Associate in Science degree at Moraine Valley at the end of the fall 2020 semester before transferring to IIT in January 2021.
Originally a business administration major, Tran decided to pursue biomedical engineering to help people in her country who lack access to affordable medical care. She hopes to conduct research that will allow her to develop medical equipment and materials to make certain treatments available to more people.
“In Vietnam, we don’t have enough medical equipment,” Tran said.
She has several family members who suffered from cancer and limited medical treatment.
“As soon as I came to the U.S., I saw so many cancer survivors. I never saw cancer survivors in Vietnam. That was fascinating to me. I realized we actually have a chance – we just don’t have access to it in Vietnam. That’s why I decided to study biomedical engineering. I hope to help make affordable, accessible machines, so everyone has a chance to fight for their life. That’s why I chose this,” Tran said.
Tran said her experience in the Introduction to Engineering class she took at Moraine Valley was helpful in clarifying her decision.
“I learned a lot from the guest speakers we had. They are all successful former Moraine Valley students or successful people in the field, and I learned so much from them,” she said.
Tran also was the recipient of the International Student Scholarship from the Moraine Valley Foundation.
