Liberian and others students in St. Paul high school overcome obstacles, win college scholarships

Liberian and others students in St. Paul high school overcome obstacles, win college scholarships

By Ruben Rosario

Take a deep breath before you read the following:

Samuel Kollie dodged machine-gun fire as a child and lost his father, oldest brother and numerous relatives to civil war and a tragic accident.

Kristal Vang, orphaned two years ago when she lost her parents in a murder-suicide, excels at school and plans to become the legal guardian to her three younger sisters.

Gao Thao juggles school with two part-time jobs and serves as a surrogate mom to three younger sisters.

And Ming Thao, no relation, lost his grandparents in the Vietnam War, while his dad, who fought alongside American troops, still struggles physically and emotionally from the scars of war.

OK. Exhale now.

The four are among 15 St. Paul public school students from poor and low-income backgrounds who won $1,500 college scholarships this year from the Optimist Club of St. Paul's Friend of Youth Foundation. They will be honored tonight at a dinner ceremony.

Several area colleges and universities — St. Catherine, Macalester, Hamline, Augsburg and St. Thomas — pledge to match the scholarships if the students are accepted and enroll.

"Helping these kids financially is very important, but to me it is even more important to see the community publicly honor these young adults,'' said John Tillotson, an Optimist Club member and the St. Paul-based first vice president for wealth management at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

"Clearly, there are high-motivated kids in St Paul who have been through a lot and view their education as a way out of their hardship."

A glance at the four students:

SAMUEL KOLLIE

Born in Liberia, the country founded by freed American slaves, Samuel is a 17-year-old senior at Johnson High School who fluently speaks four languages, including English. His father was executed during a civil war that erupted more than a decade ago. He also lost five cousins and an aunt in the conflict. Other family members disappeared.

Samuel's mother gathered her children and fled to a refugee camp in nearby Ivory Coast. They braved days without food or water while eluding rebel troops. When the civil war spilled over to the camp, the family escaped with scores of other families to another refugee camp in Guinea.

Samuel, then about 8 or 9, remembers being told to run zigzag patterns to dodge machine-gun bullets.

"It happened many times," he recalled.

He distinctly remembers the sparklike patterns of gunfire at nights while escaping families huddled together in heavy jungle foliage.

I asked him if he ever saw the movie "Tears of the Sun," which depicts a group of African civil war refugees and would-be victims braving the jungle and seeking refuge.

"It was much more than that," Samuel said. He said that, unlike the movie, which starred Bruce Willis as the leader of a commando unit, the families had no weapons and no protection.

Samuel and his family spent seven years in "prison-like" conditions at the two camps before they were allowed to come to the United States under protected-refugees status. But tragedy followed the young man here.

Samuel's eldest brother, Johan Kollie, 24, was the family patriarch. To Samuel, he was a father figure and mentor. Last year, the young man stopped to fix a flat tire while returning home from classes at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. The jack collapsed, and Kollie was fatally crushed.

Samuel was devastated.

His grades dipped. But then Samuel tapped into that bottomless well of resiliency such kids seem to have. His grades have climbed to a 3.2 GPA this year.

He works part time at Old Country Buffet in Woodbury to help his part-time employed mom pay the bills. He also volunteers to raise money and collect food and clothing to help others more needy.

Samuel serves as an usher weekly at Mount Zion Church in Minneapolis. He plans, if he can afford it, to attend college to become a human resources manager.

"I have never heard such an incredible story about surviving and overcoming obstacles," Dan Kennedy, college and career resource counselor at Johnson High School, wrote in the scholarship application form.

St. Paul high school students Ming Thao, 17, Gao Thao, 18, Samuel Kollie, 17, and Kristal Vang, 17, are being honored along with 11 others tonight as the Optimist Club of St. Paul awards its annual college scholarships to deserving youths. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

KRISTAL VANG

Kristal's mother moved to California from St. Paul with her four daughters to escape marital problems, but death followed her. One late summer morning two years ago, as then-15-year-old Kristal and her sisters prepared to start their first day of school, shots rang out outside their Fresno, Calif., home. Kristal ran out to find her mother mortally wounded on the front lawn. Her father was found in his car, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Kristal, a senior at Harding High School, returned to live with her father's relatives. She has essentially become the parent to her three younger sisters.

"Every night, she makes sure they have their homework done," wrote Mana Vue, a school district counselor. "In the morning, she wakes up to get them ready for school. Kristal is a young lady with a very big heart."

Because of the family discord, Kristal attended four different high schools by 11th grade. Yet, she blends regular classes with Advanced Placement courses at Century College. She plans a career as a medical lab technician. Now 17, she also plans to become her sisters' legal guardian by the time she turns 18.

"It's been overwhelming," Kristal told me. "You have to have two faces — I have to be strong for my sisters. I don't want to show them I'm sad. But when I'm alone, that's when I have the more sensitive one on."

GAO THAO

Gao, 18, ranks first academically in her senior class at Johnson High. She also holds two part-time jobs. One is as an intern at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, where she helps out with traffic- and road-mapping. The other is as a member of the "Invention Crew" at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The citywide youth group works to find solutions to communitywide problems or issues. The group recently received a grant from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a product to help disabled people get in and out of canoes.

Her uncle was "sold" as an indentured servant in Laos before the family came here from a Thailand refugee camp. She comes from a dirt-poor environment; gifts at Christmas are nonexistent. She and several siblings sleep in the unheated attic of a rundown home.

"I was startled to see how skinny she is," Kennedy wrote in her application.

"Gao does not fast or try to lose weight, but because of her family's difficult financial situation and the reluctance of her family to apply to get food stamps, there is often very little to eat at home."

Like many of the winners, Gao plans to become the first person in her family to attend college.

"I was just in shock when I got the news I won," said Gao, who plans to pursue a degree in civil, electrical or mechanical engineering.

MING THAO

Maybe it's the surname. Although not related to Gao Thao, 17-year-old Ming ranks second academically behind her in Johnson's senior class. Ming's father fought alongside American troops during the Vietnam War.

The man, who suffered permanent damage to his right leg in an explosion, fled to Thailand to escape communist troops. Ming's grandparents were shot and killed during the trek.

The family spent 10 years in a refugee camp before they could resettle in the U.S. Struggling with poverty, the family made the painful decision to leave behind the eldest daughter before they immigrated.

In his homeland, Ming's father was a respected Hmong military leader. Here, unable to speak English, he could not find a good job.

"Ming told me he cries sometimes because he does not know if his sister is dead or alive," Kennedy wrote in the application.

Ming has dedicated his education to his parents, his siblings and the sister he has never seen.

He scored a 29 out of 36 on his ACT college entrance exam. He has taken just about every advanced college-prep course offered to him. He is a member of his school's robotics team. His favorite class is Advanced Placement physics. He is also the captain of his school's math team. He plans a career as an actuary or in the biomedical field.

None of these kids, as well as the other winners, has a free ride to college. Most are worried they cannot afford it. I'd rather invest in these Saintly City bright lights than in a sports stadium any day.

Somehow, I get the feeling they'll find a way. Go get 'em.

Rubén Rosario can be reached at 651-228-5454 or rrosario@pioneerpress.com.

Culled from Pioneerpress