From professional athletes, reporters, doctors, programmers, and everything in between, Ocean Lakes has seen countless brilliant minds pass through its halls including senior Vu Giang who seems to do it all. 

Vu was responsible for creating this year’s virtual assembly that the entire student body and staff enjoyed amidst an unusual school year. 

“I have to admit that this was the largest project I’ve ever worked on. Between reviewing all the footage and adding all the details, it was no small task,” said Vu. “It’s really heartwarming that I was able to give people that experience and make school that much better during this time. It’s been rough; being on the screen too long is just not good and it’s hard to balance, so these opportunities to divert from the normal paradigm of the virtual learning world give me motivation.” 

The assembly clearly displayed a history of experience and practice in the cinematography field.

“I guess I do have a reputation for video editing, I attended the film program at the governor’s school for the arts for a semester and I did the film program there. I might not make a career of it but it could always be a side thing,” said Vu.

Filmworks only scratch the surface of his hobbies; Vu is currently in the process of developing certain applications based on his own original ideas. 

“I really enjoy developing applications. I am actually in the process of developing a language learning app and recently I came up with the idea for a long-distance relationship app that is geared towards fitness. Basically, the app counts the distance between members of a couple and they work towards running and adding up to the distance between them. I plan on putting them onto the market and trying to get as many people to use them as possible.”

Perhaps one of the most impressive skills that Vu attains is his ability to speak fluently in an array of languages.

“I am very passionate about languages. I am currently conversationally fluent in French, English and Vietnamese, and I’m in the process of learning Spanish, Italian, and Mandarin and Japanese as well,” said Vu. “If I get bored, I’ll jump into another, and if I start forgetting one, I’ll go back and review that one.”

On top of all of these hobbies, Vu’s desire to learn pushes him to complete research on a variety of topics.

“I’m very interested in research; I’m currently doing a research project with a friend and a professor from ODU. We’re focusing on nano/micro-sized plastic particles in certain masks that we believe may be degraded by ultraviolet radiation or regular solar radiation which creates an abundance of microplastics on the mask. We’re determining whether or not there is a significant concentration of particles being inhaled that could lead to future illnesses or effects,” said Vu.

He participates in countless extracurriculars such as track, cultural clubs, and Leadership Workshop.  While Vu’s extensive resume has opened countless doors to choose from, he looks forward to pursuing his goals close to home in order to remain near his family.

“I plan on attending Old Dominion next year; I looked into some of the organizations they have and some of the things that I am interested in are the language and cultural organizations. They also have a film organization, so I’ll be looking into that,” said Vu.