School: Chu Van An High School
    Thai Ngyen, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

4 students, ages 15-16 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 14, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): none

Classes and Teachers: Dinh Huong, Le Van, Thu, Thao, Tung, Vinh

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://

1. Description of Our Team

We are a team of four Vietnamese students, two boys: Tung, Vinh and two girls: Thao, Thu. We all live in Thai Nguyen province and we are students at Chu Van An High School. Thu: is the youngest member. She is a 15- year- old grade 10 student. She has been living in Thai Nguyen for 5 years. She likes listening to US and UK music, meeting her friends and travelling. Thao: is a student of grade 11. She is 16 years old. She loves learning English and Chemistry, reading books, listening to pop music and chatting with her friends. Tung: is 16 years old, at grade 11. He is an active boy, he likes playing volleyball, listening to pop and classical music, reading books about developing men's ability. Vinh is 16 years old, at grade 11. He is interested in Information Technology. He likes playing badminton, swimming and creating websites. In this website, we tried to share information about how to be a great leader, which skills you need to have and who are the greatest leaders. We hope you will have lots of useful information after visiting our website.

We worked under the supervision of the two coaches: Mrs. Dinh Huong is an English teacher at Chu Van An High School. She is an experienced and helpful teacher. We thank her for helping us know about this contest, giving us ideas and checking spelling mistakes. Mrs. Le Van is an Informatics teacher at Chu Van An High School. We thank for her help with Information Technology and how to make the website look better.

Joining this project, we can improve our English, gain technological experience and teamwork skills. We also learn about the skills, traits, characteristics and qualities that make an individual a great world leader. Working with this project helps raise our awareness of the importance and significance of leadership. We also bear in mind the ambition of becoming great leaders in the future. We thank everyone for having helped us to make the success of the website.

2. Summary of Our Project

“Soft skill” is a term that refers to the skills which are important in human life such as communication, leadership, teamwork, time management, relaxation, creativity and innovation. The fact is that successful people only use 25% of the professional knowledge, the remaining is 75% of the soft skills they are equipped with. In life and work environment, the soft skills play a very important role because they are decisive factors for the success or failure of each person. One of the most important soft skills is leadership. Therefore, we think that it is important to create a website to help everyone know about traits, skills and characteristics which make an individual a great world leader. While you are learning how to be a good leader, you will gain a lot of necessary experiences to overcome challenges in your life. Our website also mentions women leadership. Researches show that women leaders have more challenges and they seem to be more strictly judged than men leaders. However, women still have the right to believe in themselves that they are able to become the greatest world leaders. We will provide you with important skills to help you become a leader. Furthermore, we also introduce to you some famous world leaders and their achievements, which will help you learn about their skills and apply them in your own situations. Our website is a great attempt to undertake a systematic and scientific study of the skills, traits and qualities which prepares an individual for world leadership.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Our computer and Internet access was constant throughout the duration of the project. There were no issues in getting online in order to do research or connect with each other.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

There are four big problems during making this website. The first problem we had to face is the category we chose. 'Leadership Traits' seemed to be a very big as well as vague issue for the whole team, so it was so 'risky' for us to bump into. However, we all agreed that the more challenging the issue is, the more interesting it becomes. To collect information about 'leadership', we searched information in the internet, went to the school's library, read a lot of books and asked people around us for more ideas. It was very time - consuming to find the documents we needed.

The second problem is that we had difficulty using the English language. At school we only learn simple language for easy communication in daily life and work. Choosing the category of Leadership Traits, we had to use formal language with many techical terms that are quite difficult for us to understand. Sometimes it was hard for us to choose the right words or structures to express our ideas. The whole team had to make great efforts to tranfer what we wanted to say in English.

Lack of skills and experiences on creating a website is our third problem. We had never made any professional website before. At first, we did not know what to do. Then we had to read lots of books, look at many websites to learn how to create a website. We also consulted ideas of experienced people.

The biggest problem we faced was working with a limited amount of time. We usually learn at school 5 hours and 4 hours of enrichment classes a day. We had to try to finish this website on time and do a lot of assignments at the same time. We worked together at school at noon and in the evening and made full use of the time when we did not have classes to work on the project. All members of the team worked really hard to finish this website before the deadline.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

Nowadays, leadership becomes more and more significant in our life. Leaders play important roles in the organizations. They can make a football team become the champion, make a company become bigger, earn a lot of money. And more importantly, they make a country prosperous and wealthy, and together they make the world strong and developed. How to be a great leader? Who can be a great leader? It is not hard to say that everybody can be a great leader. We were here to guide and keep you trusting in yourselves.

6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

This project was a voluntary activity which is not included in the curricular. Unfortunately our curriculum requirements are centered on the comprehension of textbooks and related books and everything we deal with is simply remains as a theory. The educational system of our country was not directly involved, but the school environment gave us the opportunity to receive guidance. This project can serve as teaching material for history classes as it contains biographical background about several of worldwide known personalities. Our activities in this project allowed us to understand the need to work as a team and manage our time. Through this project, we could improve our knowledge about leadership, have lots of experiences, become more confident and know how to work more effectively. After joining this contest, we have improved teamwork skills and been closed together.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?

a) Hardware 1. Desktop Computer, Notebook Computer - To manage information and create a website. 2. Camera, Digital Camera, Digital Video Camera - To photograph the research process and interviews. 3. Telephone - To contact with teachers, teammates, consultants, and related departments. 4. Translator - To translate foreign language materials. 5. Screen - To watch reports and documentaries. 6. Scanner - To scan pictures and photographs. 7. Television - To collect news and related reports b) Software 1. WORD2007 - To manage documents and files. 2. Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 - To create a website. 3. Adobe Flash CS4 - To create animation. 4. Adobe Photoshop CS4 - To image editing. 5. Adobe Illustrator CS4 - To image drafting. 6. SwiSHmax - To edit special effects for our fonts. 7. ACDSee 10 - To browse pictures. 8. PhotoImpact X3 - To embellish illustrations, photographs and pictures. 9. Ulead GIF Animator 5 - To create photographic animation. 10. MS-IE8.0 - To search for Internet data and inspect results. 11. MS-Outlook Express - To receive and send emails. 12. WS-FTP95LE - To transmit files. c) Printed Mate 1. Library - to look up needed information. 2. Books, Magazines - Searching for and double-check information. 3. Newspapers, Media - To collect reports that are related to our topic. 4. Survey Questionnaire - To ask questions and collect information from the school teachers and students.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Doors to Diplomacy project both on-line and in person.

a. Giving talks In one of the weekly meetings at the beginning of the week, we introduced our 'Doors to Diplomacy' project to all of the teachers and students in our school. We presented the aims, importance, impacts and benefits of the contest to the community. We were so glad to get attention from everyone who attended the meeting.

b. Conducting a survey. In order to collect information needed for our 'Doors to Diplomacy' project, we formed a group called 'Doors to Diplomacy' and conducted a survey which asked the school's teachers and students 'What skills do you think we need to be a great leader?'. By doing this, we were able to not only collect a lot of ideas which were useful for our project but also act as 'ambassadors' and spokespersons for our Doors to Diplomacy project.

c. Promoting and advertising We made posters and banners to advertise for the project at our school. We posted information about our project on Facebook to share with our friends and asked for their consultants. Then, each member tried to tell about this project in his class and unbelievably, so many students were very interested in our project. We received much help from our teachers and friends.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

Our project will chance everybody’s recognition about leadership. Nobody is impossible to be a great leader. You just have the skills which were written in our website and believe yourselves. We think our website is friendly and useful for our community so it will succeed to make an individual a great world leader.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

Our school teachers and students and our friends were very interested in this project. They gave us lots of ideas and information about leadership. They also gave us food and drinks when we worked late. Some people even helped us to contact the leaders of the famous companies in our province. We thank them who helped us to do the work smoothly. Their help was really helpful and interesting. We were very happy.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

It’s the first time we have taken part in such a global competition as Doors to Diplomacy and it is a great challenge for us. We do not have much experience of participating in international projects. We did our best to achieve our goals. Although we haven’t done as we expected but we are very proud of our product. We have learned much more than we ever thought. From the literature review and interviews, we realized that academic work is not purely academia. In fact, it has high relevance to the world around us. Now we are more self-confident and believe that everything can be done if there is desire to do and nothing is impossible. We have learnt to think of the best, work for the best and expect the best.