Young Cambodian medal winners at the International Junior Science Olympiad in Indonesia. From Left to Right: Huoy Channaren (bronze), Dy Kuchsa (gold), Hun Vanasola (bronze), Mom Charya (silver), Ty Sovisal (silver), and Say Buntha (bronze, not appeared here). (Photo: RFA)11/02/2006
By JENNIFER AMY MYERS, Sun Staff
Lowell Sun (Lowell, Mass., USA)
LOWELL -- A request to authorize a new student exchange program intended to invite two high school students from rural Cambodia to attend the city's public school system was forwarded to the School Committee's High School Subcommittee last night.
The proposal, brought forth by a consortium of community leaders, seeks to bring 16-year-old Kuchsa Dy and 15-year-old Charya Mom, who both earned medals in the prestigious International Junior Science Olympiad in Indonesia late last year, to Lowell where they would complete their high-school years at LHS and then attend Middlesex Community College and UMass Lowell.
"This program will allow these two students to enter the Lowell Public Schools here to enrich their education and future as well as provide a cultural exchange with the students here in Lowell," said Parent Information Center Coordinator Phala Chea.
Tooch Van, international student adviser at Middlesex Community College, said when he heard of the impressive accomplishments of the two students, he could not fathom how they managed to be so successful with so few resources.
"I remember when I was a student in Cambodia, we competed for tables and chairs in the classrooms," he said. "Resources in Cambodia are very limited, coming to Lowell would be a great opportunity."
School Committee members voted to forward the request to the high-school subcommittee to further investigate the program before approving it.
They did, however, authorize the School Department to file for I-20 status with the federal government, which would allow Lowell High to accept foreign students.
Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr explained that the school did hold I-20 status through the 1990s, but it has lapsed since 2001.
In other business, Baehr announced that five "Safety Summits" have been scheduled throughout the city from Nov. 8 through Dec. 4.
The purpose of the summits, she said, is to improve student safety by developing a shared understanding of existing policies and procedures and identifying ideas that could be used to strengthen policies and procedures related to student safety.
Among the topics that will be discussed are: bullying and harassment, bus safety and behavior, weapon possession, school evacuation and staff or volunteers with a history of arrest or conviction.
The meetings are open to the public and will be attended by School Department administrators, as well as a representative from the Police Department.
The proposal, brought forth by a consortium of community leaders, seeks to bring 16-year-old Kuchsa Dy and 15-year-old Charya Mom, who both earned medals in the prestigious International Junior Science Olympiad in Indonesia late last year, to Lowell where they would complete their high-school years at LHS and then attend Middlesex Community College and UMass Lowell.
"This program will allow these two students to enter the Lowell Public Schools here to enrich their education and future as well as provide a cultural exchange with the students here in Lowell," said Parent Information Center Coordinator Phala Chea.
Tooch Van, international student adviser at Middlesex Community College, said when he heard of the impressive accomplishments of the two students, he could not fathom how they managed to be so successful with so few resources.
"I remember when I was a student in Cambodia, we competed for tables and chairs in the classrooms," he said. "Resources in Cambodia are very limited, coming to Lowell would be a great opportunity."
School Committee members voted to forward the request to the high-school subcommittee to further investigate the program before approving it.
They did, however, authorize the School Department to file for I-20 status with the federal government, which would allow Lowell High to accept foreign students.
Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr explained that the school did hold I-20 status through the 1990s, but it has lapsed since 2001.
In other business, Baehr announced that five "Safety Summits" have been scheduled throughout the city from Nov. 8 through Dec. 4.
The purpose of the summits, she said, is to improve student safety by developing a shared understanding of existing policies and procedures and identifying ideas that could be used to strengthen policies and procedures related to student safety.
Among the topics that will be discussed are: bullying and harassment, bus safety and behavior, weapon possession, school evacuation and staff or volunteers with a history of arrest or conviction.
The meetings are open to the public and will be attended by School Department administrators, as well as a representative from the Police Department.
7 comments:
Please do your best to give these two young talents a chance for a brighter future. On behalf of some colleagues of mine who have been following the story of the youth for quite sometime, I am more than grateful to initiators of the project.
I dun know if it is good for them but to me, these young bright Cambodians deserve much more than the Community college which is the place the for the average students. Get them to the best school.
Really happy to hear that Cambodians, especially those from rural areas, will get well educated!!
For the hunger, bread is not much different from rice!!!
Please do the best your abilities to help them get this golden chance!! helping them means helping Cambodia
terrible ideas.
12.05pm is right. these students deserve better education. am a Massachusetts resident. i know LHS and MCC are not great schools. Massachusetts has some of the best private HS and colleges in the nation. these students should be put in better schools.
=pukeko
LHS and MCC are not great because their curriculums or less academic challenges or the students themselves are not up to the challenge?
These two kids are the best of Cambodia's treasury and they had done that. However, they are not the best compare to the students in USA (we still don't know). When they are to enroll in LHS and they prove that they are very best outstanding academically achievement students whom LHS historically has ever had, I almost certainly believe their names will be caught the eyes of Yale, MIT, Georgetown, or Harvard School. I did see a lot of disadvantged students who were ended up in prestigious universities and colleges when they did very well at public high schools.
excuse me if i disagree w/ you. you have a point. however, i feel they don't need to prove themselves, they already are. rather than choose a school for them to go, why not give them the opportunity to take entrance exams into great private schools (i know former Lowell's city counselor, Rithy Ung sent a notice about an excellent private school in Andover(?) or some city in MA looking to accept minority students at no cost to them). am sure there are more excellent schools in MA who would love to have these young schoolers join their program for FREE. why not give them a chance to prove themselves at those schools instead? why must they attend a mediocre school when they have already proven in a "prestigious International Junior Science Olympiad". com'on, give them some challenges. if you are going to service them, service them well, not with mediocre program, but with programs that fit them. otherwise, they will waste times at trying to prove themselves in mediocre school, before they can finally get what they really need.
you're right about disadvantage kids from public school catching the eyes of prestigious colleges, but this is not the point. the point is to send them america so they can get the BEST education that America has to offer. they are they to get mediocre education, keep them in cambodia. who knows, they might even turn out better there than if educated here. who knows else, these kids may perform well if put in LHS, no doubt about that, the question is once they graduate, will they be up to par with or better than the ivy leaguers? have a nice day - pukeko
I love these kids to death and wish them only the best wherever you are!
All of us that are closer to them need to make sure, they get proper training, especially English as a second language. This is the greatest challenge of all that we might not think it's one big obstacle at the movement. Take care
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