Who it's for
First-generation students
The first in their family to attend college, with a special welcome to Vietnamese-American applicants.
When you drink from the stream, remember its source.
The Bùi Foundation turns one family's gratitude into scholarships for students who are the first in their family to reach college — and for young people carrying the Vietnamese story forward.
A debt to the past that can only be paid forward.
Our family arrived with little and left with an education — the one thing that couldn't be taken back. And every degree in this family began with someone else's generosity: a teacher who stayed late, a stranger who covered a fee, a country that opened a door.
We can't repay the people who helped us. Most of them we could never find again. So we do the next best thing — we help the student coming up behind us.
The Bùi Foundation is a small, family-run fund with one job: keep that current moving. When you drink from the stream, you remember its source — and then you make sure the stream keeps running for the next person who's thirsty.
One scholarship, kept every year and grown as the fund grows. Small and dependable beats large and abandoned.
The first in their family to attend college, with a special welcome to Vietnamese-American applicants.
Applied to tuition, books, or fees and paid directly to the student's school.
Applications open each spring. The inaugural Bùi Scholar is chosen this year.
We would rather award one scholarship for twenty years than twenty scholarships for one.
At the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, the names of scholars who passed the imperial examinations were carved into stone stelae, each set on the back of a stone turtle, so their achievement would outlast them. This is our small stele. Each year, the name of a Bùi Scholar is added.
This stele is waiting for its first name.
Fund the inaugural scholarship, and a student's name is carved here in 2026.
Every dollar given goes to students — the family covers what it costs to run the fund. A gift here isn't abstract. It buys a real, countable thing: part of one student's year.
43% of the way to funding the 2026 Bùi Scholar.
Give to the fund →The Bùi Foundation is a family fund.
No polish required. We're looking for students who are reaching, not students who already have everything they need.
Applications for 2026 open this spring. One short essay, no fee, ever. Questions are welcome any time.
Start your application →