Chau, who has studied in the US for just two years, came top out of nearly 800 other graduates from Grocer Cleveland High School in Los Angeles this year, including 17 Americans of Vietnamese descent.

Chau has overcome lots of difficulties to integrate into a completely new educational environment and to win four honourary degrees, including the President’s Education Award for the best high school graduates.

Her father, Diep Quoc Ke, said thanks to her high marks, Chau was selected for a scholarship worth US$70,000 a year to study at one of the universities in California and Eastern America such as the Universities of Columbia and Princeton.

Chau has eventually decided to study pharmacy at the University of California - Irvine because she hopes to create medicines to treat incurable illnesses.