Assuming the dual role of pursuing undergraduate studies in Quang Tri Province and supporting her family, Tran Thi Loan manages to maintain a shining academic record.

The Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry senior has been acting as her family’s sole breadwinner since the sudden death of her father's last year, caring for her ill mother and four younger, school-aged siblings.

“As the elder sister, if I succumb to adversity, I will very likely generate despondency amongst my family. This I can't accept,” she said.

The prospect that her brothers and sisters might leave school due to the family’s poverty is a fate she is unwilling to shoulder. 

To cover her personal expenses and the children's tuition fees, Loan spends her spare time and entire summer vacation working to provide for the family.

Her employment ranges widely, from weeding to harvesting mung beans in isolated plantations more than 60 miles from home, the latter earning her VND150,000 ($7) a day.

Loan’s resolve has strengthened her to the point that she’s become accustomed to arduous jobs typically reserved for men, such as carrying cement bags and bricks for construction material dealers. 

As a student, Loan has succeeded with flying colors. 

She has completed her fourth-year hands-on training in her hometown and boasts an excellent grade point average from her previous three school years.

Below are some photos of Loan:

She transfers a cement bag onto a man's shoulder. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan manages a stack of bricks. Photo: Tuoi Tre

She enjoys a frugal home-packed lunch on grass. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan (right) carries baskets overflowing with weeds near the sandbank of a nearby village. The daily wage is VND 250 thousand ($11). Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan pays homage to her late father. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A 'girly moment' Loan enjoys with her younger sister. Photo: Tuoi Tre

She gives her brothers a wash when her mother is working. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan and her friends make notes during their experiential learning period. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Beads of perspiration roll down her face after construction work. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan (right), with back bent, collects mung beans in the blazing sun. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan (right), with back bent, collects mung beans in the blazing sun. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan prepares vegetables, occasionally provided by her employer, in a primitive makeshift hut built in a forest where she worked. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Loan reads by torch light beside a mosquito net in the hut. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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