ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605200052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: JAN CIENSKI ASSOCIATED PRESS
THUY DINH'S father began working as a parking lot attendant after escaping from Vietnam. His family has put six children through UVa.
More than 20 years after Thuc Dinh escaped from Saigon just ahead of the communists, he and his wife are celebrating an American success story.
The Dinhs worked at menial jobs, saved and sacrificed to put all six of their children through the University of Virginia. The last of them, 21-year-old Thuy Dinh, will pick up a his degree on Sunday.
Six grads in one family is just one shy of the record for sibling graduates at the school founded by Thomas Jefferson.
The drive from Springfield in suburban Washington to the university in Charlottesville is one that Thuy knows well. He's been doing it since he was 5 years old and his oldest sister, Thuy Tu Bich, decided to attend UVa.
When the next child, David, picked the same university, the younger brothers and sisters knew where they were going to college. Thomas, now 26, didn't even bother applying to any other schools.
``By that time I pretty much had my mind made up,'' said Thomas, who graduated in 1993 and is now an economic analyst with a Washington law firm.
Row upon row, thousands of empty chairs are lined up in front of the university Rotunda, waiting for this weekend's graduates. Surveying the lush green lawns and the buildings planned by Thomas Jefferson almost two centuries ago, Thuy talked about how his parents always expected that their children would go to the state university.
``In high school that was my biggest thing - to get to college. Whenever I went out I had the thought in the back of my head, `Should I be studying?'''
For a family that fled the ruins of collapsing South Vietnam 21 years ago and arrived in America with nothing, education became the key to success.
Thuc Dinh had been a journalist in Vietnam. In America, he began working as a parking lot attendant. His wife, Thanh, a literature teacher in Vietnam, first stayed home with the children and then worked in a cafeteria.
After a few years they moved up - he to a job in Xerox as a stock handler, she to a job in a small computer company. For 13 years they worked opposite shifts so that one parent would be home with the children.
``We miss the old country, but we feel we are lucky to come here for the good futures of our children,'' said Thuc Dinh.
Despite sending six children through university, the parents don't take much credit for their success.
``We think that they should get all the credit,'' said Thuc Dinh. ``We just tried very hard to help them.''
The whole family tried very hard. Parents and children worked and saved money to pay for college. Tuition alone came to more than $62,000. The children are still paying off their student loans.
``Thinking back, I find it hard to believe that they were able to stick to it for so long, despite all the hardships,'' Thuy wrote in a letter to university President John T. Casteen III.
``They threw away all their dreams and accomplishments by leaving their homeland in 1975, and have instead given us the love and support to allow us to achieve our dreams.''
Casteen is planning to mention the Dinhs during his address to the graduating students, university spokeswoman Ida Lee Wootten said.
As the family hoped, the parchment UVa degree has opened the door to America.
Thuy, who was born in Vietnam, will receive a bachelor of arts degree in sociology, rhetoric and communication studies. He plans to be a sports reporter.
Thuy Tu Bich earned a UVa law degree in 1987 and now works as an attorney for the federal government. David graduated in 1986 with an aerospace degree and now works in Singapore. Elyse, the class of 1988, is in Hollywood working on an acting career. Then came Thomas. Katherine graduated in 1993 with an English degree.
Dinh only has one explanation for why her children have done so well here - love and caring.
``The family bond, it's very, very strong,'' she said. ``They tell me everything. It's not that I want to control them, but they know that I'm always worrying about them.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Thuy Dinh, 21, sits with his parents Thuc, left, andby CNBThanh Dinh, in their Springfield, Va., home in this undated photo.
Like his five older siblings, Thuy Dinh will graduate from
University of Virginia. color.