December 11, 2024
A former Oak Ridge family gifted $10,000 to Roane State Foundation this fall, supporting two different scholarship endowments that will benefit Roane State students.
The donation is being split between the Phung Family Scholarship Fund and the Herman Postma/PAI Corporation Scholarship Endowment.
Dr. Doan L. Phung established his first endowment with the Foundation back in 1991. He now lives in Las Vegas, dividing his time between the U.S. and Vietnam, but has continued to expand efforts to give back to the East Tennessee community.
The Phung Family Scholarship is awarded annually to an enrolled Roane State student. The Herman Postma/PAI Corporation endowment provides a merit-based award each year to a graduating high school senior who is planning to attend Roane State.
“We are so grateful to Dr. Phung and his family for supporting our students as they work to reach their goals,” said Dr. Chris Whaley, president of Roane State. “We have a shared mission of changing lives through the power of education. It takes all of us being committed to this effort to make a difference.”
Dr. Phung first visited the Knoxville area in 1961 after he graduated from Florida State University and was on his way to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After obtaining his master’s degree from MIT, he went back to Vietnam in 1964 to work at the Vietnam Nuclear Research Institute. In 1970, he returned to MIT to pursue his Ph.D. which led him again to Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
After the Vietnam War, Dr. Phung established the nuclear consulting company PAI Corporation in Oak Ridge. Through friendships with Dr. Alvin Weinberg and Dr. Herman Postma, successive ORNL directors, Dr. Phung established endowments with Oak Ridge Schools and Roane State.
Dr. Phung also devotes much of his time and financial resources to the education of children in Vietnam. He established a program there that concentrates on elementary, middle, and early high school-aged students. In 2023, it was adopted by more than 200 schools with an estimated 100,000 students and 6,000 teachers participating in the program.
While international promotion of the program has seen its challenges, Dr. Phung said he continues to work toward his goal of enlisting 1,000 schools. He also plans to continue his support of both endowments with Roane State.
For more information on Roane State Foundation, or to make a gift to support students, visit roanestate.edu/foundation or email Foundationdept@roanestate.edu.
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