The Inspiring Journey of New Pharmacist Pham Trung Tri Dung: From Carrying His Mother to Academic Success

His father passed away just one month before his thesis defense and his mother was undergoing treatment for a severe illness, yet Pham Trung Tri Dung – a student of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Nguyen Tat Thanh University – still graduated with exceptional honors. The image of him carrying his mother on his back onto the stage to receive his degree marks a profound journey divided between the lecture hall and the hospital.

In the recent graduation ceremony of Nguyen Tat Thanh University, as students took turns stepping onto the stage to receive their degrees, the hall suddenly fell silent during a very special moment. Pham Trung Tri Dung did not walk alone. On his back was his frail mother after a long period of medical treatment.

Dung leaned down so his mother could wrap her arms around his neck. His slow, deliberate steps on the stage seemed to reenact the long journey that the mother and son had traveled together through years filled with major life upheavals.

Few knew that behind that exceptional Pharmacist degree were days when Tri Dung had to simultaneously face his graduation thesis, the pain of losing his father, and his mother’s battle with illness. A journey filled with tears, but one that also demonstrated the resilience of a young person who chose to go to the very end of the path he pursued.

Pham Trung Tri Dung carries his mother on his back to the stage to receive his graduation degree – a poignant moment closing a multi-year journey split between the lecture hall and the hospital

From his mother’s small pharmacy to the dream of wearing the white blouse

Tri Dung was born and raised in a family closely tied to the pharmacy profession. His mother is a pharmacist who worked for many years at a small pharmacy in their hometown of Go Cong (formerly part of Tien Giang). Dung’s childhood was associated with the smell of medicine, and with the evenings his mother spent diligently checking prescriptions, sorting out each blister pack and each bottle of syrup.

“Ever since I was little, I saw how seriously my mother took her profession. Just one wrong dosage could affect someone’s life. That made me form a special respect for the pharmacy industry very early on,” Dung recalled.

Graduating from high school, Dung did not go straight to university like his peers but enlisted to perform mandatory military service. Two years in a disciplined environment trained Dung to be resilient, but it also made returning to books and studies afterward much more strenuous.

When he officially became a student of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Tri Dung stepped into a completely different world: courses heavy in chemistry, pharmacology, formulation, and testing; practical sessions in labs that demanded absolute precision.

“There were times I felt I was slower than my classmates because I had been away from studying for too long. But I thought that if I had chosen this path, there was no reason to quit halfway,” Dung said.

Dung chose to study consistently, breaking down the volume of knowledge. Instead of cramming, Dung spent a lot of time in the laboratory, learning how to observe chemical reactions and memorizing each procedure of formulation and drug testing.

That knowledge did not just stay on the pages of textbooks. It soon became a crucial “weapon” when Dung’s family entered a period of hardship.

The frail mother after a long period of medical treatment alongside her son on graduation day – an image of sacrifice and enduring maternal love

When the lecture hall ran parallel with the hospital

The crisis struck during his final years of university. Tri Dung’s father suffered from severe memory loss, losing the ability to care for himself. Almost all daily activities required someone by his side.

Before he could adapt to that, his mother was diagnosed with a severe illness. The prolonged treatment left her exhausted, making eating difficult and causing her spirits to fluctuate constantly.

From then on, Tri Dung’s life was divided into two halves. One half was in Ho Chi Minh City with his class schedule and internship shifts at hospitals and pharmacies. The other half was in Go Cong with rushed meals, helping his father use the restroom, and driving his mother to the hospital for treatment.

“There were days I interned from morning until afternoon, and took a bus back to my hometown in the evening. At night I stayed awake to watch over my mother, and in the morning I took a bus back to school. There were times I was so tired I just wanted to sleep for a whole day, but I didn’t dare allow myself to collapse,” Dung shared.

Thanks to studying Pharmacy, Dung could read and understand medical prescriptions, knew how to monitor the side effects of treatments, and knew when to notify the doctor. The knowledge from his textbooks now became tools to care for his own loved ones.

“At least, I no longer panicked when looking at the figures on a prescription. I understood what my mother’s body was enduring and how to mentally prepare,” Dung said.

The faculty members who knew about Dung’s situation created favorable conditions for him to be more flexible with his class and internship schedules. Friends took turns helping Dung take notes and handle group projects.

But then, the biggest tragedy still came. With exactly one month left before his graduation thesis defense, Tri Dung’s father passed away after a long illness. “At that moment, I felt like everything collapsed. But if I fell apart, my mother would have no one left. I had no right to stop,” Dung said.

Dung managed his father’s funeral arrangements while taking care of his mother after her treatment sessions, and simultaneously finalizing his thesis. There were nights Dung wrote reports right next to his mother’s hospital bed, waiting for each IV drip to finish so he could assist her to the restroom, before returning to his computer.

With all his effort, Dung defended his thesis on schedule, achieved an outstanding result, and officially qualified to graduate with Exceptional Honors.

Despite numerous crises and losses, Tri Dung still rose up strongly to excellently complete his study program; a representative of Nguyen Tat Thanh University’s Board of Management presents the Exceptional Honors graduation degree to Tri Dung during the Graduation Ceremony

“In my many years working as a homeroom lecturer, I have rarely met a student with such resilience and sense of discipline as Dung,” Specialist Pharmacist II Nguyen Thi Xuan Lieu – Head of the Department of Pharmacy Management, Faculty of Pharmacy at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, who is also Tri Dung’s homeroom lecturer, shared. “He not only studies well but also lives very responsibly toward his family and his own future. Even when having to run between the hospital and the lecture hall, he never slacked on his studies. The image of Dung carrying his mother on his back to the stage to receive his degree today did not just touch many people deeply, it stands as a beautiful symbol of a young person who knows how to stand firm in adversity and go to the very end of the path he has chosen.”

On graduation day, the son carries an entire journey of love to the stage of glory

During the graduation ceremony, when Tri Dung carefully carried his mother on his back onto the stage to receive his degree, it was not merely a moving moment, but the closure of a long road spent between the hospital and the lecture hall. When he was a child, that mother used to cradle, care for, and watch over him from his very first steps. Today, the son is mature enough to become a pillar of support, carrying his mother through an important milestone of life.

For Tri Dung, carrying his mother onto the stage stemmed from deep gratitude. “Without my mother, I wouldn’t be able to stand here,” Dung shared. From the small pharmacy in Go Cong, through the years of hard work to raise her son for his education, up until the time she carried a severe illness yet still tried her best to encourage her son to complete his thesis, his mother was the one who silently nurtured today’s success.

From the very shoulders that carried his mother onto that stage, Tri Dung enters the pharmacy profession with a baggage of knowledge, experience, and empathy – on every path ahead, his mother will always be silently watching over him

Dung wanted his mother to be the one to receive that degree alongside him, because in his mind, this was not just his own achievement, but the result of a lifetime of sacrifice. Those were the nights his mother stayed awake with him over his books, the times she endured pain after treatment sessions but still asked: “Was your studying tiring today, son?”. Therefore, the Pharmacist degree with Exceptional Honors does not just bear the name Pham Trung Tri Dung, it carries the silhouette of a mother who placed her entire life into her child’s dream.

From the very shoulders that carried his mother onto that stage, Tri Dung enters the pharmacy profession with much more than knowledge: he enters with experience, with deep empathy, and with a clear awareness of the value of life. And that is also the foundation for a young person to continue going far on the path he has chosen.

Written by: Cam Thach

Photos by: Media and Provided by the Character