June 2018
At Middlesex Community College, Extra Help for Asian Students
By Linda K. Wertheimer
June 5, 2018
Her parents, with limited English language skills, could not guide her. They had never
had a chance to go to college because the Khmer Rouge not only committed genocide
of more than 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975-79, they also cut off educational opportunities
for many of those who survived.
Ms. Mam, who immigrated to the United States at age 9, said she believed she had to rely on herself for everything at her college in Lowell, Mass., home to the nation’s second largest Cambodian population.
But Virak Uy, a Cambodian refugee who is the director of the college’s new Program for Asian American Student Advancement, had no intention of letting her flounder. He urged Ms. Mam to stop by the Asian American Connections Center, which opened in 2017 to help Southeast Asian students.
Photo Credits: M. Scott Brauer for The New York Times
Ms. Mam, who immigrated to the United States at age 9, said she believed she had to rely on herself for everything at her college in Lowell, Mass., home to the nation’s second largest Cambodian population.
But Virak Uy, a Cambodian refugee who is the director of the college’s new Program for Asian American Student Advancement, had no intention of letting her flounder. He urged Ms. Mam to stop by the Asian American Connections Center, which opened in 2017 to help Southeast Asian students.
Photo Credits: M. Scott Brauer for The New York Times
Read the full story here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/education/learning/middlesex-cc-southeast-asian-students.html