Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993 TAG: 9306030394
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BROOKE RAMSEY and AMY STARR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But before that day, Patrick Henry senior Hanh Mai will have already received papers granting her freedom: the certificate of United States citizenship.
Hanh's parents sent her from Vietnam when she was 8 to get a good education and, as an American citizen, to pursue a brighter future than the one she faced in Vietnam.
Hanh already had a sister in Australia, and an aunt, sister, and brother in Roanoke. But, for Hanh to live with either of them, her parents paid a family to hide her and, when the weather and the time were right, to sneak Hanh out in the middle of the night to a boat bound for Malaysia.
Hanh's first attempt to escape failed when police caught the family, and Hanh was returned home to her parents. Her parents, however, were undaunted and paid the family for a second try. This time, Hanh, armed only with her mother's directions to do what she was told and what everybody else did, endured the seven-day journey.
On the boat, Hanh remembers that the only things to eat were "soup and rotten food," and that the only available water came from the ocean. The boat was so crowded that there was no room under the deck to lie down to sleep, so Hanh chose to sleep on the deck where she could stretch out.
She says she was afraid the boat would "flip over during the night" while she slept, a feeling instigated by the water splashing on her as the boat rocked from side to side.
Once they arrived in Malaysia, Hanh and the other escapees were held in a refugee camp. After a year and eight months, Hanh was interviewed by the Australian and American ambassadors.
Hanh's mother had instructed her to try to go to Australia, but the scared little girl who understood no English nodded when the American ambassador asked her if she wanted to go to the United States. Soon after, Hanh found herself on a plane to San Francisco. The Refugee Replacement Agency there was able to contact Hanh's relatives in Roanoke and, at the age of 9, Hanh arrived in Roanoke to begin her life in America.
The first ingredient in Hanh's new life was school. Just two weeks after she came to Roanoke, she began attending Highland Park Elementary School.
Hanh remembers, however, that for the first semester she was "bored and unhappy," because although she neither spoke nor understood English, she was treated no differently from her classmates.
At home Hanh spent much of her time alone while her aunt, brother, and sister worked. In their spare time, though, they helped her with her English, which greatly improved during the second semester when she was bused to Lincoln Terrace to be tutored in English.
As her English improved, so did Hanh's appetite for learning. She went from Highland Park to Jackson Middle School and spent her freshman year at a private high school in Wisconsin before returning to Roanoke and attending Patrick Henry.
Hanh praises Patrick Henry for the options it has given her. This year, Hanh is taking advanced-placement calculus, which may exempt her from one semester of calculus in college; college biology, for which she will receive credit at Virginia Western Community College; and WordPerfect and crafts, both of which are one-semester elective courses.
Hanh also attends CITY School, a half-day program for 60 Patrick Henry and William Fleming students, which includes dual-enrollment college English; honors U.S. government; and daily seminars from Roanoke city officials, lawyers, physicians, authors and other community leaders. Hanh also is a member of the Beta Club.
The freedom that Patrick Henry has given Hanh Mai to make choices about her education is a freedom enjoyed by all its students. The diversity in the education pursued by this year's graduates is extensive.
In addition to honors, advanced-placement and dual-enrollment classes, some students have attended the Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology and/or the Center for Advanced Studies in Humanities. Others have prepared for a business career in Patrick Henry's extensive marketing-education program or received hands-on training in welding, auto and small-machines repair, printing and photography in the Gibboney Technical Center.
The graduating class also is multilingual and includes students who have studied French, Spanish, Russian, Latin or Japanese. As in past years, a majority of this year's graduates plan to attend two- or four-year post-secondary institutions.
Hanh Mai plans to continue her education this fall as a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is undecided about her major, but she thinks she will pursue a career in medicine.
by CNB