The new year brings a big step for Cấn Thị Hoa: she has just completed her Master's degree in nursing education - with a dream grade of 1.5. And she became deputy headmistress of the AWO Training Academy in Sindelfingen. A great career path! Seven years ago, Cấn Thị Hoa came to Germany from Vietnam. Cấn Thị Hoa remembers the day of her entry exactly: on 27 February 2016, she was standing at Frankfurt Airport with a suitcase and her friends. The young women had studied nursing together in Hanoi and learned German at our language school. Everything was new, everything was exciting. A few days later, she started her adaptation course at the Sana Clinic in Offenbach. "I was warmly received there and learned a lot."
It was hard at the beginning. The language and the cultural differences - plus different tasks: In Vietnam, for example, nurses place intravenous lines - in Germany, only doctors are allowed to do that. Cấn Thị Hoa was in surgery and the stroke ward. With the help of her colleagues and supervisors, she made the transition.
Hoa worked at the hospital for a total of five years. Her daughter was also born in Offenbach. Her family was the reason she moved to Baden-Württemberg: Her boyfriend works there and she no longer wanted to have a long-distance relationship. Hoa had wanted to teach for a long time. When she was studying herself, she gave private lessons. "Teaching means lifelong learning: that's what I enjoy." The nursing school where she now works trains young people from many different countries to become nursing specialists. German is the mother tongue of only one third of the students. "I was a bit afraid of teaching in German at first, but it works. Only when it comes to Swabian does Cấn Thị Hoa reach her limits. Now she is starting an advanced German course to refine her language even further. With her courage and eagerness to learn, she is also a role model for her international students. Teaching is her passion: "It is so nice to educate young people. Yesterday they came as beginners, and tomorrow they are experts.