Christina Schmidt works on a school project for her social studies and English class. After wrapping up her freshman year of high school this month, Schmidt will travel to Guatemala with her family to help build a house through Habitat for Humanity. (Arkasha Stevenson/The Oregonian)June 06, 2010
By Carolina Hidalgo
The Oregonian (Oregon, USA)
On a tidy shelf in a bright turquoise bedroom in Southwest Portland sits a framed certificate from the Cambodian Ministry of Education. It is written in Khmer, the official language of the Southeast Asian nation, except for a name: Christina Schmidt.
The document, essentially a fancy thank-you note, was presented to the 15-year-old last winter in a tiny village about a day's drive northwest of Phnom Penh after she helped raise more than $16,000 to build a secondary school in the impoverished country.
"I feel like it's part of my duty to give back and to help others who aren't as lucky as I've been," Schmidt said.
Now, as she wraps up her freshman year at Lincoln High School, the teen with a passion for nonprofit work and a knack for raising money is preparing for her next project: a family Habitat for Humanity trip to Guatemala. She and her 13-year-old brother, Andrew, have raised $2,000 to put toward construction supplies. They will donate their time to build a house with the family that will live in it.
Schmidt, sitting at her dining room table, traces her interest in humanitarian work to a 2007 family vacation to Vietnam and Laos that introduced her to life in developing countries.
She got involved with Cambodia a few months later while considering what do the next year for her eighth-grade project, required of students at Arbor School of Arts & Sciences, the private school she attended in Tualatin.
An e-mail from her dad held the answer. It contained a news article about a girl who raised thousands of dollars for American Assistance for Cambodia, a nonprofit that builds schools. As soon as she read it, she rushed downstairs to her dad's home office.
"This is what I want to do," she told him. "I want to do this."
Her excitement surprised her father, David Schmidt, a pulmonary specialist at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.
"I didn't intend for her to do that exact project," he said. "But she grabbed onto it kind of like grabbing a bull by the horns."
Before jumping in, Christina Schmidt tracked down and pored over American Assistance for Cambodia's tax records. "They use every single cent that they get so well," she said.
She also learned that if she could raise $13,000, it would be matched with $20,000 from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank -- enough to build a school.
Next, Schmidt had to track down a professional to work with, a requirement of her school. She found a mentor in Kim Freed, former managing director of the Oregon Zoo Foundation, who had years of fundraising experience.
Freed said she was nervous when she heard that Schmidt planned to raise $13,000 in nine months.
"But I could tell by her determination and her energy that she was going to see it happen," Freed said. "I was very much inspired by her."
Bernie Krisher, former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief and founder of American Assistance for Cambodia, said schoolchildren often work together to raise money to build schools, but only a very few can accomplish the goal on their own.
"They are very compassionate," Krisher, who has corresponded with Schmidt by e-mail, said of children who devote time and money to advancing education around the world. "They're going to contribute a great deal and learn a lot and probably succeed in life."
Schmidt kicked of a 300-letter fundraising campaing and secured small grants from two foundations. Then during her 2008 winter break, her family traveled to Cambodia on vacation, and Schmidt got the chance to visit an American Assistance school.
Interacting with the students brought her project to a "whole other level," she said. She keeps a gift from them, a frosted blue binder filled with colorful drawings, next to the certificate on her bedroom shelf.
Her favorite drawing, of a yellow and red sun overlooking a field of purple flowers, came with a message: "Hello! My name is Kunthea." She was touched that he made an effort to write in English. "I just thought that was so sweet."
Schmidt and her father returned to Cambodia a year later to attend a dedication ceremony for the school she helped pay for: The Arbor School of Hope. The 80 students lined up in their crisp white shirts and navy slacks and skirts to greet her. They giggled when she said hello in their language: "Johm ree-uhp soo-uh!"
In the end, she raised $16,235.14. Now she's working to use the extra money to secure a water filter and textbooks for the three-room, shingle-roofed school. She has also become interested in water scarcity issues, recently participating in Portland's Walk for Water and helping with awareness days through her high school's Mercy Corps club.
"Christina's always been pretty confident," said her mother, Jennifer Schmidt, who's taking the year off from teaching. "But ever since the project, she seems much older and more mature."
Christina Schmidt is grateful for the outpouring of support she received. She keeps a zip-close bag filled with letters from donors in a cabinet below the certificate of thanks.
"They're just really important to me," she said of the letters. "Because the school wasn't really built by me. It was all the people who gave the money who really deserve the recognition, because without them, it wouldn't have happened."
-- Carolina Hidalgo
The document, essentially a fancy thank-you note, was presented to the 15-year-old last winter in a tiny village about a day's drive northwest of Phnom Penh after she helped raise more than $16,000 to build a secondary school in the impoverished country.
"I feel like it's part of my duty to give back and to help others who aren't as lucky as I've been," Schmidt said.
Now, as she wraps up her freshman year at Lincoln High School, the teen with a passion for nonprofit work and a knack for raising money is preparing for her next project: a family Habitat for Humanity trip to Guatemala. She and her 13-year-old brother, Andrew, have raised $2,000 to put toward construction supplies. They will donate their time to build a house with the family that will live in it.
Schmidt, sitting at her dining room table, traces her interest in humanitarian work to a 2007 family vacation to Vietnam and Laos that introduced her to life in developing countries.
She got involved with Cambodia a few months later while considering what do the next year for her eighth-grade project, required of students at Arbor School of Arts & Sciences, the private school she attended in Tualatin.
An e-mail from her dad held the answer. It contained a news article about a girl who raised thousands of dollars for American Assistance for Cambodia, a nonprofit that builds schools. As soon as she read it, she rushed downstairs to her dad's home office.
"This is what I want to do," she told him. "I want to do this."
Her excitement surprised her father, David Schmidt, a pulmonary specialist at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center.
"I didn't intend for her to do that exact project," he said. "But she grabbed onto it kind of like grabbing a bull by the horns."
Before jumping in, Christina Schmidt tracked down and pored over American Assistance for Cambodia's tax records. "They use every single cent that they get so well," she said.
She also learned that if she could raise $13,000, it would be matched with $20,000 from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank -- enough to build a school.
Next, Schmidt had to track down a professional to work with, a requirement of her school. She found a mentor in Kim Freed, former managing director of the Oregon Zoo Foundation, who had years of fundraising experience.
Freed said she was nervous when she heard that Schmidt planned to raise $13,000 in nine months.
"But I could tell by her determination and her energy that she was going to see it happen," Freed said. "I was very much inspired by her."
Bernie Krisher, former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief and founder of American Assistance for Cambodia, said schoolchildren often work together to raise money to build schools, but only a very few can accomplish the goal on their own.
"They are very compassionate," Krisher, who has corresponded with Schmidt by e-mail, said of children who devote time and money to advancing education around the world. "They're going to contribute a great deal and learn a lot and probably succeed in life."
Schmidt kicked of a 300-letter fundraising campaing and secured small grants from two foundations. Then during her 2008 winter break, her family traveled to Cambodia on vacation, and Schmidt got the chance to visit an American Assistance school.
Interacting with the students brought her project to a "whole other level," she said. She keeps a gift from them, a frosted blue binder filled with colorful drawings, next to the certificate on her bedroom shelf.
Her favorite drawing, of a yellow and red sun overlooking a field of purple flowers, came with a message: "Hello! My name is Kunthea." She was touched that he made an effort to write in English. "I just thought that was so sweet."
Schmidt and her father returned to Cambodia a year later to attend a dedication ceremony for the school she helped pay for: The Arbor School of Hope. The 80 students lined up in their crisp white shirts and navy slacks and skirts to greet her. They giggled when she said hello in their language: "Johm ree-uhp soo-uh!"
In the end, she raised $16,235.14. Now she's working to use the extra money to secure a water filter and textbooks for the three-room, shingle-roofed school. She has also become interested in water scarcity issues, recently participating in Portland's Walk for Water and helping with awareness days through her high school's Mercy Corps club.
"Christina's always been pretty confident," said her mother, Jennifer Schmidt, who's taking the year off from teaching. "But ever since the project, she seems much older and more mature."
Christina Schmidt is grateful for the outpouring of support she received. She keeps a zip-close bag filled with letters from donors in a cabinet below the certificate of thanks.
"They're just really important to me," she said of the letters. "Because the school wasn't really built by me. It was all the people who gave the money who really deserve the recognition, because without them, it wouldn't have happened."
-- Carolina Hidalgo
15 comments:
WHAT A GREAT HUMAN BEING. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Buddhist temples oversea can just learn from her experience.
In fact ,there are a lot more than just building the two storey temple.
Be reminded that Buddha once walked away from that.Be receptive to Buddha's intention of teaching how to live live sensibly,rather than drowning yourself to those bound materials.In Cambodia,this misled cambodians and materialised monks to betray Buddha instead.
Buddhist temple can raise funds,and help cambodians with compassion and humanity that clearly described in Buddhism.
Funds can be Mathed by other organisations as it has been done by just a compassionate girl who is strange and far away from cambodia.
God bless her!
Kaun Khmer
HunXen in his 60's still helping youn destroy cambodia.
This mean the older he get, the more uncivilizes he gets?
Kaun Khmer you have noble sentiments and your exhortations are truly altruistic ("Buddhist temple can raise funds,and help cambodians with compassion and humanity that clearly described in Buddhism"). Unfortunately you have not appreciated the fact the Buddha himself teached detachment from the present material world. so, building schools for others will be done only if it advances the spiritual merit of the buddhist donors. it's odd, but the reality is that buddhists don't care about land grabbing/sex slavery/human right abuses in our country. Have you ever heard of the cambodian buddhist clergy leading protest marches against the selling of innocent children to sex crazed westerners? and why are they so silent in the face of injustices in our society?
she is so different from Government corruptors of cambodia
she is full of virtue.
Cambodian polices and Cambodian military polices alike are robbers and thief alike too.
they trained to be cruel, lawless instinct as their leaders trained to steal the money and distort money from the population of cambodia
corrupt officers are all surrounding prime minister and are all at the council of minister of Cambodia. not 3 among 100 as ah Hun sen said. but 200 among 100. Ah Hun sen should be scare of his colleague than the opposition. opposition people are helping country than all the corruptors in the uncivilized (vulgar) Cambodian government
Well...The school deserves to be name after Christina Schmidt. I doubt very much that Dr. Hun Sen allows this because he wants all the schools to be name after him.
We dont need bloody schools, we need teachers. EDUCATED teachers.What good is a school if you dont have teachers . A child can be educated under a mango tree, if you have a good teacher.
9:38AM - I TAKE MY HAT OFF FOR YOUR VALID AND CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS.
On the front page of the TIME dated June 7/2010 it says:
WHY BEING POPE MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY, the sex abuse scandal and the limits of atonement written by Jeff Israely & Howard Chua-Eoan.
The issues have never been openly addressed or rectified. I look at the ways that many Buddhists as well as other religious groups have misled and manipulated Buddha & their God's principles purely to promote their own agenda. Unfortunately we are living in the constant battle with ignorance and greed.
Schools in cambodia are being build like grass from people living abroad, but no TEACHER, educated teacher teaching..?? i went to O'dong, Kompong Speu, i saw school in the middle nowhere...kandal viel sre..only cow sleeping in and around the schools...
PM Hun Sen must given every boy and girls in cambodia..especially in the countryside, rural area throughout the country, they all must be in school and learning, PM Hun Sen must push our people to have high education...i've never heard him mention anything about educations at all?
youn want hunxen do that to yuong khmer genertion no read ,write and what happen???????? to cambodia
$16,000 worth a school, that's good.
$16,000 Huynh Xanh will buy Tag Hauer watch.
Just like comments above mention...there's bunch of schools in camodia these days, but they do not have teacher to teach the children in the countryside area...everybody scramble for Phnom penh city for jobs..? and left the countryside EMPTY!!!!
correction = cambodia
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