Mai Phuong, Nguyen
THE QUESTION I KEEP COMING BACK TO
I Don’t Just Want to Understand How Systems Work. I Want to Build Better Ones
Economics first drew me in because it gave me a way to understand how decisions, incentives, and institutions shape people’s lives. But the more I learned, the more I wanted to step outside the classroom and see those systems for myself - in farms, businesses, financial institutions, and communities.
FROM CLASSROOM TO REAL LIFE
My interest in economics has grown through a constant movement between learning and experiencing. Growing up with roots in Vietnam, studying in Singapore, and spending time in the United States exposed me to very different environments - but also made me notice something similar: behind every economic model are people making decisions with limited time, resources, and opportunities.
That is why I rarely want to stop at understanding how something works. I want to know what it looks like in real life, who it works for, where it breaks down, and whether it can be redesigned.
Vietnam
U.S.
Singapore
Research/business
WHAT ECONOMICS LOOKS LIKE TO ME
For me, economics is not only about markets, numbers, or financial models. It can look like a farmer spending hours preparing feed, a family deciding whether it can afford to adopt a new technology, a bank deciding how to evaluate risk, or a student gaining access to an opportunity that once seemed out of reach.
The more I encountered these situations, the more I became interested in the space between economic theory and everyday life - and in how better systems can create better choices for the people inside them.
HOW I TURN CURIOSITY INTO ACTION
This has shaped the way I approach almost every project. I start by going where the problem actually exists and listening to the people involved. Then I try to understand what is happening beneath the surface through research, data, and conversations with people who know the system better than I do. Only after that do I ask what I can build, test, or change.
Go there
Ask why
Build
From visiting cattle farms and U.S. livestock operations, to researching central banking, working with financial institutions, and building student communities, this process has become the thread connecting many seemingly different parts of my journey.
ONE QUESTION THAT BECAME A PROJECT
One of the clearest examples began with something I saw repeatedly in cattle farming. Farmers were working incredibly hard, yet much of their time and effort was being absorbed by an inefficient feeding system. After studying livestock operations in Vietnam and seeing different approaches in the United States, I began asking whether feed could be redesigned not simply to improve cattle growth, but to change the economics of the entire farming system.
That question became my cattle farming project - combining compressed TMR feed, improved cattle genetics, environmental analysis, and a proposed financing model to explore whether a more productive system could also become more accessible to smallholder households.
WHAT I AM BUILDING TOWARD
One Question Can Lead Much Further Than Expected
A question about cattle feed became a question about how an entire agricultural system could work better.
What I Keep Coming Back To
