Jenny Dung Le, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Business and Management

“We always say that the future is inat the hands of the young generations and the best thing we can do is to train and nurture the talents of our future generations”. For Professor Jenny Le, this was the belief she firmly subscribed to, having found her true calling in education among her various passions. Joining us in the “Meet VinUnians” interview, she divulged the journey that led to her most important career decision, her personal outlook on life and education, as well as her personal projects.

Upon our inquiry of her decision to specialize in Hospitality Management, professor Jenny Le regaled us with stories about her time as an undergraduate student in Vietnam and a graduate student in Vietnam and abroad. “It’s like destiny!” was, her first remark, filled with fond nostalgia. According to Professor Le, it was a career in Marketing that she was initially passionate about. Having completed her bachelor’s degree in International Bbusiness from Foreign Trade University, Professor Le worked briefly as the director assistant for BigC Vietnam before winning a scholarship to pursue her first Master’s degree in Marketing Research at Toulouse 1 University Capitole, France. Here, thanks to Europe’s convenient cross-country travel policy, she could visit new places, experience foreign cultures, and meet new people from diverse backgrounds. –  tThe experience she gained through her journeys across Europe had opened her eyes toward new possibilities and sparked a new interest in the tourism and hospitality sector, a field to which she later devoted her career.

Her second Master’s degree in New Communication Technology and Tourism at University Paris Dauphine was a dual program that allowed her to gain hands-on industry experience through intensive company internships, in addition to fulfilling academic requirements. For her, the opportunity was the perfect chance to further develop essential know-how related to hospitality,; and it was also her first step into the field of tourism and hospitality. She offered her insights on this human-oriented sector : “ […] someone who wants to do a career in tourism and hospitality should love talking to people, meeting people from different cultures, and experiencing new things everyday!”.

Upon her return to Vietnam after finishing herthe second Master’s degree, Professor Le became a lecturer at Foreign Trade University and was involved in developing the Hospitality and Tourism Management bachelor’s program. This marked an important milestone in her career as she switched from industry-intensive positions to the educational arena. For her, being an educator is the most rewarding job: “An educator is someone who can touch a life, create an impact, and influence others in a way that no other job can compare to.”

The next step in her academic career was to complete her PhD program at Griffith University, the number 1 tourism and hospitality educational organization in Australia. Working under the supervision and guidance of top world-class professors such as Professor Noel Scott and Professor Susanne Becken developed her growing mindset and transformed her, from a knowledge-transfer teacher to a knowledge-generator by conducting academic research. Through her work with a disciplinary research team in government-funded projects to solve critical issues of environmental conservation for tourism and hospitality management, her passion for sustainability has been well shaped.

After her PhD completion, Professor Le was inspired by the long-term vision of developing future talents in Vietnam and joined VinUniversity. She expressed immense enthusiasm in nurturing, growing, and supporting the younger generations to try harder, work smarter, and pursue their dreams fearlessly to reach their fullest potential. Her teaching philosophy is to create a nurturing learning environment in which students engage in small assignments to understand basic concepts in class and then are challenged to deal with gradually more complex projects. In addition to delivering courses in class, she also involves first-year and second-year students in her research projects, using advanced research tools such as eye-tracking, to foster their understanding and knowledge of advanced technologies.