Pupils to attend dedication of foreign school they "built"
Thursday, December 04, 2008
By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item (Pennsylvania, USA)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item (Pennsylvania, USA)
MILTON -- At 2:45 this morning, eight students, six teachers and chaperones were climbing aboard a bus to begin an epic journey, the culmination of their yearlong quest to build a school in Cambodia.
By airplane, boat and bus, their trip will take them to a tiny village called Mean in Kampong Cham Province to see the dedication of the Milton School, believed to be the first school in Cambodia built with funds raised by American public school students.
They will see first-hand what their work has meant to the children of the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country. It was their efforts to raise money that built the school.
Larissa Luu, a Milton senior who is the spark plug of what came to be known as Educate Cambodia, is among the group taking the trip. She became the face of the effort, speaking before church and civic groups, urging her fellow students on, and her work brought her the 2008 Young Heroes Award from the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia.
"I'm really excited that it's built," she said. "But I'm nervous about the trip."
The trip is costing each of the participants about $3,300, a price that includes a deep discount by American Council for International Studies, of Boston, which made all the travel arrangements.
Michael Conn, who teaches history and world cultures at Milton, visited Cambodia during the summer of 2007. He saw the desperate poverty and hunger for knowledge and made the initial pitch to help build the school.
Luu and her fellow students took it from there.
Conn and two other teachers, high school Principal Bryan Noaker, a teacher's sister and a parent, will accompany the students.
Conn said there hasn't been much contact with the people in Mean.
"We got an e-mail last Friday telling us the school was open and kids were attending," Conn said. "That's when it really hit us that we had done it."
The Milton School in Mean has 145 students and 11 teachers, and more pupils are expected as word spreads through the region about the school.
A week from today, Luu and her fellow students plan to wear the "Educate Cambodia" T-shirts they sold as fundraisers to the dedication.
Community response 'phenomenal'
William Clark, Milton's superintendent, said those going on the trip are "ambassadors of educational goodwill."
By airplane, boat and bus, their trip will take them to a tiny village called Mean in Kampong Cham Province to see the dedication of the Milton School, believed to be the first school in Cambodia built with funds raised by American public school students.
They will see first-hand what their work has meant to the children of the poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country. It was their efforts to raise money that built the school.
Larissa Luu, a Milton senior who is the spark plug of what came to be known as Educate Cambodia, is among the group taking the trip. She became the face of the effort, speaking before church and civic groups, urging her fellow students on, and her work brought her the 2008 Young Heroes Award from the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia.
"I'm really excited that it's built," she said. "But I'm nervous about the trip."
The trip is costing each of the participants about $3,300, a price that includes a deep discount by American Council for International Studies, of Boston, which made all the travel arrangements.
Michael Conn, who teaches history and world cultures at Milton, visited Cambodia during the summer of 2007. He saw the desperate poverty and hunger for knowledge and made the initial pitch to help build the school.
Luu and her fellow students took it from there.
Conn and two other teachers, high school Principal Bryan Noaker, a teacher's sister and a parent, will accompany the students.
Conn said there hasn't been much contact with the people in Mean.
"We got an e-mail last Friday telling us the school was open and kids were attending," Conn said. "That's when it really hit us that we had done it."
The Milton School in Mean has 145 students and 11 teachers, and more pupils are expected as word spreads through the region about the school.
A week from today, Luu and her fellow students plan to wear the "Educate Cambodia" T-shirts they sold as fundraisers to the dedication.
Community response 'phenomenal'
William Clark, Milton's superintendent, said those going on the trip are "ambassadors of educational goodwill."
2 comments:
THANKYOU EVERYONE FROM MILTON AND EVEWRYONE THAT PUT IN ON THIS TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE....Bhudda Bless SROK KHMER
Well done Milton. Food will fill children's hunger for a day but school will fill them with education how to survive for a life time. Thank you
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