04/07/2008
By Hiroko Sato, hsato@lowellsun.com
Lowell Sun (Massachusetts, USA)
LOWELL -- Peter Tia knows that luck is often an ingredient in the recipe for success, as well as the ability to recognize it and seize it.
While his parents, who fled Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, saved up money to send him to college, his best friend from first grade is under stress with family problems, and there is little hope in sight to afford higher education.
Tia's classmate, Ashli Davis, has many friends who became pregnant while in high school. Other friends didn't even try applying to competitive colleges because they didn't believe in their abilities, Davis said.
In Lowell High School, where 3,750 students from 32 different countries speak dozens of languages, the struggles and circumstances they live through are just as diverse as their cultures. If there is anything common among Tia, Davis and classmates, Andrew Howe and Shikha Kaji, who are all headed to prestigious colleges and universities this fall, they've seen "the best and the worst" of what life can bring, as Headmaster William Samaras puts it. They know how easy it is for people to fall victim to poverty, and they've refused to let stereotypes define them.
"It pushed me to take advantage of what I have," Tia said of his best friend's misfortune.
"No matter what, anything you put your mind to is possible," said Davis, who has a black belt in martial arts.
In the fall, four graduates will head off to colleges considered among the best in the nation. Howe will study history at Harvard University, while Davis, Kaji and Tia are headed to Massachusetts Institute of Technology majoring in brain and cognitive science, biomedical engineering and computer engineering, respectfully.
It's the largest number of students headed to these colleges from Lowell High School since 2002, when three students left for Harvard and another three for MIT.
LHS sends many students to competitive schools each year. But when students head to top colleges and Ivy League schools, it makes the dedicated teachers at LHS extra proud, Samaras said.
"A lot of them have ownership in students," Samaras said. "Students' success is their success."
Davis, who "didn't have finer things" growing up, was worried she's become just another face on the campus when she transferred from Boston Latin Academy in her junior year. But her guidance counselor put her at ease, trying to find out every concern she had. He never gave her "the look" that others did when she said she was thinking of applying to MIT.
Howe, too, is familiar with "the look." A drum major for the high-school band, Howe meets with students from suburban high schools, whose facial expressions often change, he says, when he tells them he is from Lowell High School.
The son of Richard Howe, Jr., North Middlesex Registry of Deeds, Howe could have gone to a private school, he says. But Howe believes he couldn't have gotten better education from anywhere other than Lowell High, which offers numerous academic courses and extracurricular activities for its large student body. And like his grandfather, Richard Howe, who served on the City Council for four decades, he is interested in giving back to the community in some manner in the future.
Giving back also is important to Kaji, who is grateful to the Indian cultural organizations that helped her family settle here after immigrating to the U.S. when she was 2. She's been volunteering as a tutor for local schools. And while her ultimate goal is to become a physician, she believes she can make contributions to the society by studying biomedical engineering in the meantime.
Samaras said the students' success stands for their resilience and the quality of education at Lowell High School.
While his parents, who fled Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, saved up money to send him to college, his best friend from first grade is under stress with family problems, and there is little hope in sight to afford higher education.
Tia's classmate, Ashli Davis, has many friends who became pregnant while in high school. Other friends didn't even try applying to competitive colleges because they didn't believe in their abilities, Davis said.
In Lowell High School, where 3,750 students from 32 different countries speak dozens of languages, the struggles and circumstances they live through are just as diverse as their cultures. If there is anything common among Tia, Davis and classmates, Andrew Howe and Shikha Kaji, who are all headed to prestigious colleges and universities this fall, they've seen "the best and the worst" of what life can bring, as Headmaster William Samaras puts it. They know how easy it is for people to fall victim to poverty, and they've refused to let stereotypes define them.
"It pushed me to take advantage of what I have," Tia said of his best friend's misfortune.
"No matter what, anything you put your mind to is possible," said Davis, who has a black belt in martial arts.
In the fall, four graduates will head off to colleges considered among the best in the nation. Howe will study history at Harvard University, while Davis, Kaji and Tia are headed to Massachusetts Institute of Technology majoring in brain and cognitive science, biomedical engineering and computer engineering, respectfully.
It's the largest number of students headed to these colleges from Lowell High School since 2002, when three students left for Harvard and another three for MIT.
LHS sends many students to competitive schools each year. But when students head to top colleges and Ivy League schools, it makes the dedicated teachers at LHS extra proud, Samaras said.
"A lot of them have ownership in students," Samaras said. "Students' success is their success."
Davis, who "didn't have finer things" growing up, was worried she's become just another face on the campus when she transferred from Boston Latin Academy in her junior year. But her guidance counselor put her at ease, trying to find out every concern she had. He never gave her "the look" that others did when she said she was thinking of applying to MIT.
Howe, too, is familiar with "the look." A drum major for the high-school band, Howe meets with students from suburban high schools, whose facial expressions often change, he says, when he tells them he is from Lowell High School.
The son of Richard Howe, Jr., North Middlesex Registry of Deeds, Howe could have gone to a private school, he says. But Howe believes he couldn't have gotten better education from anywhere other than Lowell High, which offers numerous academic courses and extracurricular activities for its large student body. And like his grandfather, Richard Howe, who served on the City Council for four decades, he is interested in giving back to the community in some manner in the future.
Giving back also is important to Kaji, who is grateful to the Indian cultural organizations that helped her family settle here after immigrating to the U.S. when she was 2. She's been volunteering as a tutor for local schools. And while her ultimate goal is to become a physician, she believes she can make contributions to the society by studying biomedical engineering in the meantime.
Samaras said the students' success stands for their resilience and the quality of education at Lowell High School.
6 comments:
My head is off for you, your achievement, and your family, Peter. You make us, Khmer, proud. We want to see more Khmer children heading to top schools.
If you wanted to make the difference, Peter Tia has already make some difference... His family also deserved the credit for this great achievement. Best of luck!!!
In a long line of prestige colleges...MIT is the king of king for brainy...
I tried my hardest to get into MIT, Harvard, and Standford, but was waited listed, and finally was forced to accept Columbia University instead.
Applaud to you...and hopefully, I will meet you in the future...
Hun Manath is the man! The first student to have gratuated from the best military school in the world (West Point).
Way to go, buddy!
Ah gorillas out!
Oh yeah? then how come the US lost the Vietnam war and had lot of trouble in Iraq?
These Viet trollers do nothing here on KI-Media but giving the Cambodian/Khmer people and Cambodia a bad name. Damn you Viet trollers!
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