HNP: Oh, it's awesome. I’ve met the most amazing people and all my friends, they’ve done extremely cool things. I'm never bored here. Anything I want to do, there's someone who would be willing to help me. Even without having a particular destination in mind, I get to engage in very interesting topics.

HNP: Yes. There was a moment when I saw a quadratic equation. It was a small regional competition when I was in grade four, and solving it got me really excited because it's a cool technique, and the fact that I came up with it during exam conditions just made me really happy – like I could create anything I want to. It got me really excited to dive in more with mathematics. That moment still keeps me on track, keeps me looking toward research and graduate school after undergrad.

For EGMO, it took me by surprise that I even got to participate. (Vietnam does not send a team.) I had done a lot of Olympiad competitions in Vietnam, where I’m from. And it’s common for people to study abroad in high school. But it was really random for our family to send me specifically to Wales. From there, I thought, “Maybe I could try for EGMO.” And I got it!

The best moment during the exams was in 2023 when I saw Question Six – the geometry question. I was really proud I could solve it, because aside from Six normally being the hardest, when I went back to the UK at our IMO celebration, I received a geometry prize. So it was really nice. EGMO was in Slovenia that year. The coastline was really beautiful, and out of 11 girls in my class here at Trinity this year, I think I know half of them from that competition.

We also met the recent Field Medalist [Maryna Viazovska], who works on 3D spatial geometry. There was a lot of talk about working in academia as women in a male-dominated industry. It resonated with me. It makes me feel like I'm not alone, and I could actually become like those speakers – one day, it could be me achieving something really big without my gender being a barrier.

HNP: I would attribute my success to a handful of people, especially my mentors. My greatest mentor of all was my father, because he taught me math at a very young age. When I was in grade four, he could teach me things from grade five, always one year ahead. It felt like it came to me intuitively, and I'm ready to grow. He would be the first person to teach me a cool and completely new concept, which he was confident I could grasp.

My father was also one of my biggest supporters. If I didn't do as well as I expected, he would just say, “It doesn't really matter.” And it calmed me down a lot.

HNP: I would definitely say to make sure that they are doing the competitions for the sake of mathematics and not for the sake of competitions or to get into a good university. Getting really involved with mathematics and not loving it in the long run can be quite a mental burden. But if people just love the mathematics, they will enjoy it no matter what.

HNP: At this stage, my mathematical education is very immature. In the first year of uni, I'm getting introduced to the basics. Within the things I've been introduced to – analysis and combinatorial thinking. It's interesting to me how some continuous functions behave so weirdly, not the way they are supposed to. Analysis keeps me vigilant all the time, to ensure I’m not “fake solving” the problem – that I question and prove all my claims. I enjoy how rigorous the course is.

HNP: I just played chess for Trinity yesterday! I went to a few competitions when I was young, then kind of lost touch with it. I’m proud to be playing again. I also started running recently, and just did a half-marathon. Before this year, the farthest I'd run was around four kilometers. So, it's amazing.

HNP: Definitely chess is related. Mathematics are so broad that anything could be called a math problem. Chess is a subset of it, because I am required to calculate all the possible scenarios that could happen within the observable future at each move. Running helps me regain mental clarity and come back with so many different ideas than before I ran.

HNP: My first step is to give myself some really easy examples. So for the geometry question, I would ask myself, “Could this triangle be equilateral?” It looks equilateral as I draw it. “Are these four points cyclic?” It looks like a cyclic, and I would just go on and try to prove it. In general, I make observations, write some cases, and try to spot the patterns. Then I make a hypothesis and try to prove it, or prove it’s wrong by coming up with a counter example. Through trial and error, I would kind of solve the problem.

But that is just half the equation. In competition because of the time constraint, I would look at what hint the problem is trying to give me. So with EGMO, I drew the diagram and saw so many lines, and they coincide at a point. So I'm gonna use the cross-ratio.

HNP: This is my last summer that I can do something outside of mathematics, because second year I’ll go for a research position. This year is my transition from high school into adult life as well, so I want to try a bunch of things.

I want to do social projects. I’ve enjoyed sports recently, but it's dawned on me that I’ve been deprived of physical education my entire life because girls are not encouraged to play. So I want to go back home to Vietnam at some point and see how I can get girls into sports.

Beyond undergrad, I am considering a lot of options. But right now I still would very much prefer to keep studying and doing research.