THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606070236
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: A salute to the Class of '96
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 79 lines
At 18, Kempsville High School graduating senior Alan Chang has overcome more obstacles than most people twice his age have faced.
He was 3 when his family moved to this country from China, young enough so that when he started school he was pretty well grounded in his adopted language. But by the time he was ready to start second grade the problems began.
``My mom and I went back to Taiwan to visit that summer,'' he said. ``Then she got sick so we ended up staying there.''
For three years Chang attended school in his native land, learning to read and write the Mandarin which was his first language.
``I liked Taiwan,'' said the serious young man who now lives in the Kempsville Greens neighborhood. ``I made lots of friends there.''
And there was family as well, a lot of extra hands to care for the young boy and his mother as she battled lung cancer.
It was a battle she was to lose in 1989. After her death Alan Chang returned to Virginia Beach, to live with his father, Roger, and to pick up the American schooling he had left three years earlier.
It was not an easy task.
``I was old enough for sixth grade but in many subjects I was functioning at a first-grade level,'' he said.
A crash course in summer school that year helped a little.
``I caught up on my cursive writing,'' said the student who had spent the three previous years painstakingly learning the hundreds of characters in which his native language is written.
When school started in the fall he found himself with other sixth graders.
It was what he described as a ``kind of weird'' experience. ``I had no idea what I was doing, but I slowly taught myself.''
By seventh grade things were going a little better, well enough, in fact, that Chang felt he should go into superior math even though his sixth-grade teacher had not recommended him for it.
However his seventh-grade teacher, recognizing the young man's abilities, recommended him for honors English and he's been taking honors courses ever since.
The experiences of those years left him with a a lot of empathy for others going through tough times.
Along with carrying a heavy load of difficult classes, Chang has found time to volunteer at Sentara Bayside Hospital and to provide tutoring to another student struggling to adjust to the country and the language.
``He came here from Japan,'' he said. ``I could really understand what he was going through.''
Chang has also been an active participant in such diverse activities as Boy's State, the Governor's Spanish Academy, Junior Civitan and the regional science fair. He's a Brickell Scholar and the recipient of the Chinese American academic award.
Today, he's one of a handful of Kempsville High School's 453 graduates who can claim a grade-point average above the 4.0 mark. ``It's pretty good, a 4 point something-or-other,'' he said with a shrug and his characteristic reticence.
It was good enough to get accepted in the engineering program at Virginia Tech. And at the University of Alabama - which continues to pursue him even though he's already sent his regrets.
Good enough, even, to get him into the University of Virginia, where he plans to go to study chemical engineering.
And good enough, finally, to get him more than $9,000 in scholarships from such diverse sources as All Saints Episcopal Church, the Tidewater Builders Association and Beach Ford. There's even one from his elementary school alma mater, Betty F. Williams, where much of his struggle to re-enter the American culture took place.
Right now his plans for the future include a master's degree and what he terms ``a stable job'' preferably in the environmental field.
``There were times that I never thought I'd make it,'' he admitted. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
Along with garnering a 4.0-plus average in a heavy load of difficult
classes, Alan Chang has found time to volunteer at Sentara Bayside
Hospital and to another student. He plans to study chemical
engineering at U.Va. by CNB