Thuy Tien Huynh, a 21-year-old from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has long been interested in Russian language and culture, classic Russian literary works, movies, and music from the Soviet era. While searching for opportunities to study abroad in Russia as a student in the faculty of Russian Linguistics and Literature at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnam, she came across information on the HSE International Olympiad and decided to give it a shot.