Jessica Tran

Recommendation Letter for Nhi Vo (Keira)

Dear Members of the Scholarship Selection Committee,

It is with great pleasure that I write this letter in support of Keira's application for your scholarship in Public Policy. I have known Keira for more than ten years, and over that time I have had the privilege of working with her in two very different contexts: first as fellow volunteers in a community education project through AIESEC, and years later as professional collaborators in a corporate transformation project. Few people have had the opportunity to observe her growth across such a long period, and it is from that perspective that I offer my strongest recommendation.

I first met Keira when we joined AIESEC's Global Passport project, an initiative that provided English education to the local community. I was the project leader at the time, but I was still inexperienced. Looking back, I can honestly say that the success of our project was not the result of one person's leadership but of people like Keira, who quietly strengthened the team from within. While many volunteers focused on completing assigned tasks, Keira consistently looked beyond her own responsibilities. She naturally brought people together, encouraged open communication, and helped build a sense of trust that kept the team motivated throughout the project.

One contribution I remember particularly well was her initiative in securing a teaching venue free of charge from a major English language center. It was a practical solution that significantly reduced our operating costs and allowed us to focus our resources on serving the community. More importantly, it demonstrated a quality that I have continued to see in Keira over the years: when she encounters a challenge, she does not wait for someone else to solve it. She builds relationships, identifies opportunities, and finds solutions that create value for everyone involved.

Several years later, after I had graduated and begun working in a multinational corporation, our paths crossed professionally once again. We collaborated on a project to redesign the company's website and reposition its communication strategy for the Vietnamese market. Although the setting was entirely different from our volunteer work, I saw the same strengths expressed with greater maturity. Keira served as the bridge between my team on the client side and the web development team responsible for implementation. She communicated complex business requirements with clarity, aligned stakeholders with different priorities, and ensured that discussions remained focused on delivering meaningful outcomes rather than simply completing technical tasks. Her ability to build understanding between people with different perspectives became one of the key reasons the project progressed smoothly.

What impressed me most was her approach to developing our communication repositioning strategy. Rather than relying on assumptions or generic marketing ideas, Keira invested significant time in understanding the Vietnamese market, our organizational objectives, and the needs of our target audience before presenting her recommendations. The strategic plan she proposed was thoughtful, evidence-based, and practical, receiving high praise from my manager at the time, our Human Resources Director.

These experiences reflect qualities that I have consistently observed in Keira throughout the past decade. She is deeply curious about the world around her and genuinely committed to understanding complex issues before attempting to solve them. Outside of work, she has long been passionate about the arts and the preservation of Vietnam's traditional cultural heritage. What stands out is not simply her interest in these subjects, but the way she approaches them—with patience, intellectual curiosity, and a desire to understand the broader social and cultural systems behind them.

Over the years, I have come to realize that this is how Keira approaches almost every challenge. She asks thoughtful questions before offering answers. She seeks to understand root causes instead of treating symptoms. She listens carefully to different perspectives, synthesizes information, and develops solutions that are both well-reasoned and practical. In my view, these are exactly the qualities required of someone who hopes to contribute meaningfully to public policy.

Public policy is ultimately about improving people's lives by balancing evidence, culture, diverse interests, and long-term societal outcomes. Having watched Keira grow over more than ten years, I believe she possesses not only the intellectual ability to excel academically but also the empathy, integrity, and collaborative leadership needed to translate knowledge into meaningful public impact.

I therefore recommend Keira to you without reservation. I am confident that she will make the most of this opportunity and will become a thoughtful leader whose work creates lasting value for her community and for society. Should you require any additional information, I would be pleased to provide it.