After graduating from high school, her father informed her that a university education was out of the question. He expected her to marry. “I challenged my dad and told him it was okay if he could not send me,” Vannaying recalls. “I’d help myself. I was determined to do this.” Study was going to be her ticket out. Against his wishes, she enrolled in Far Eastern University, and landed a job as a working student in the Registrar’s office during the day, then attending classes at night. It took her five years to finish. During that time, she met her Thai husband, Viwat, who was studying political science at the University of Manila, and they married. The couple finished their master’s degrees at the University of the Philippines in Baguio and produced Peter, the first of their three sons.