1. Interview Amb. Michalak: “I tried to promote
education in Vietnam as best as I could”
Mr. Michael W. Michalak
Former United States Ambassador to Vietnam Appointed August 2007
Senior Vice President of the US-ASEAN Business Council
Founding Board Member, Tan Tao University
1. Why did you originally decide to become part of the founding of TTU?
I am a passionate advocate of education as a critical factor for development; development
of a person, of a family of a nation. I tried to promote education in Vietnam as best as I
could by sending officers out to talk at schools to encourage Vietnamese students to
aspire to go to internationally recognized Universities. I tried promote educational reform in
Vietnam to streamline the bureaucracy and support a more open attitude towards foreign
Universities coming into Vietnam. Madame Yen was also very passionate about education
and devoted a large mount of her personal resources to setting up a Universities that, to
the extent possible, would follow an international curriculum, be taught by professors
having internationally recognized credentials and would pay attention to the education of
minority student that otherwise would not have a chance to attend a first class University.
When I was Ambassador I watched Madame Yen work with American Schools to recruit
professors, to try to follow curricula from well known universities in the United States. I
thought her goals were very similar to mine and I wanted to help in any way I could. So
when I retired and was offered the chance to join the advisory board I took it. It has not
been easy and the school has had and will have ups and downs, but the fact that the first
class graduates this year is a tremendous achievement and l hope that it will grow and
develop into an internationally known university in Vietnam.

2. Mr. Michalak in TTU first Commencement Ceremony
2. What advice would you give to the first graduates of TTU?
Continuing from some of my earlier comments, I would encourage new graduates to
realize that this is not the end of your education. Education is a life long process that goes
on no matter where you are or what you are doing. Be curious and ask questions.
Continue to study English. Travel around the world. You have now made for yourselves a
lot of tools, not so much tools that you can pick up and put into a bag, but tools you have
put into your heads. You have seen different ways of looking at things different ways of
thinking about things Use those tools to come up with solutions for your life, for your family
and for your country. Vietnam is still a developing country that can use new ideas, new
energy to break bottlenecks, new ways of working together to solve problems of energy,
health care, housing, and transportation. Your generation is going to have to deal with
Global Warming and Sea Level Rise which is going to affect Vietnam, to change lives
here, to impact your way of life and your economy. You now have some ideas of what
needs to be done, what new technologies need to be developed, how much Vietnam
needs to work together to face the issues of the future. I hope that TTU has given you
some of the things you will need, but more than what is on the books, more than what the
professors said is the binding that you have with your classmates, your professors and all
the people you have met during these years. A wise person once said give a man a fish
and he will be able to eat but teach a man how to fish and you have given him a new life.
You have now learned some of the things you will need to know to be able to think, make
decisions, solve problems and live your life, but it is never finished and you should
continue to be open to new learning, to meeting new people and think about new ideas.
That's life and it's your turn to live it!

3. Whenever I come come to TTU i think about Oakland University, my undergraduate
college. My school was also an experimental school founded with a donation of land an
money from a very wealthy woman who loved education and was always a welcome
presence on campus. The faculty were young, some of them not much older than the
students they taught, and they were all dedicated to the promotion of learning and learning
together. The boundaries between student and teacher were knocked down and the
students were able to benefit from the academic and life experiences of the faculty. It was
there, at Oakland University, that I really learned to think for myself, to analyze to discuss
and to contribute. I was not an outstanding student and only really realized what I had
earned after I left the school, but many of my experiences and memories of the people and
professors with whom I studied, lived and interacted remain strong within me today. I
would hope the students studying at TTU and the new graduates would remember their
time at TTU, take advantage of the opportunities to get to know their professors.
Furthermore, I hope that, in the future they will also come back to TTU to give back some
of their life skills, knowledge and experience to those who will be coming after them.
Learning is a life long process in which one should always engage. Be curious, take risks,
don''t be afraid to fail.
Le Chi - TTU Media