Attending expert Julie Brockman’s farewell session was Dr. Duong Kim Anh, Vice President of Vietnam Women’s Academy (VWA), as well as leaders and experts of several units under VWA.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman started working at VWA from September 4, to October 20, 2018. During 6 weeks of working full-time at VWA under the Fulbright Scholars, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman conducted 6 classes and discussions with students. On September 10, she had her first teaching session for senior students of the Business Administration Faculty on “Subjects of labor in the US”. In the following weeks, she continued to provide comparative information on various labor issues between Vietnam and the US such as labor contracts, organizational behavior, labor grievance procedures, gender impact assessment… Her lectures closely followed practical issues, directly equipping VWA ‘s students with key knowledge to prepare them for graduation.

In addition to lectures for the Business Administration students, she also conducted a lecture on “Designing Gender Impact Assessment” for students majoring in Gender and Development at VWA.

She also spent 3 full days teaching soft skills during VWA students’ soft skills week, the main content of which was to convey to students how to work effectively in groups, the criteria and characteristics of a good team work, strengths and weaknesses, as well as specific examples and activities for the teamwork topic. Her activity “Paper Tower” was responded to by many students. This activity aimed to stimulate creativity, serious working spirit and effective coordination among group members. Her lectures always attract and encourage students to participate actively and enthusiastically. Most students highly appreciate the quality and value they receive from experts and express their desire to participate in more lessons with international experts.

A soft-skill class with the activity of “Paper Tower”

Not only training students, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman also actively participated in training, sharing experiences in teaching, researching, and writing scientific articles for staff and lecturers working at VWA on these topics such as: “Skills for writing articles for international journals”, “Effective work management and conflict resolution for administrative staff”, “Adaptation and strategy construction for organizations”, “Interactive teaching methods”,… She also consulted and supported the Women’s Studies Institute with their ministerial research topics by finding documents related to the positivity and adaptability of female workers, thereby contributing to improving knowledge and skills for VWA’s staff, lecturers, and researchers.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman in a talk with VWA’s staff regarding “Interactive Teaching Methods”

Moreover, she made significant contributions to important scientific conferences of VWA by co-chairing the talk of Gender & Development Faculty on “Sexual abuse” and the international scientific conference on “Women’s Enterprises in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution”. In these talks and conferences, she provided presentations and shared opinions full of practical information so that delegates could have a clearer perspectives of the above issues in the American society.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman in the international conference on “Women’s Enterprises in the 4.0 Industrial Revolution”

Aside of work, she also had impressive exchange activities with students such as: being a guest speaker in a talk on “Cultural differences between Vietnam and America” ​​for VWA’s students, participating in many sessions of the VWA Student English Club, as well as attending and interacting in many other VWA’s events during her staying time.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman attending a session of the VWA Student English Club

The Board of Management highly appreciated Ms. Brockman’s contributions to VWA during her 6 weeks working here. On behalf of the VWA’s leadership, staff, lecturers, and researchers, Dr. Duong Kim Anh respectfully gave thanks and wishes to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julie Brockman  for health and success at work. Hopefully in the near future, Ms. Brockman will return to VWA to participate in training and research activities within the framework of cooperation programs between the governments of Vietnam and the United States in general, and between Vietnam Women’s Academy and Michigan State University in particular.