Somnieng
Hoeurn, left walks Thursday across the St. Ambrose University campus
followed by his mentor, Chhoeurn Chhun, senior monk at the Wat Damnak in
Cambodia. Hoeurn attended St. Ambrose from 2006 to 2010 before earning
his master's degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of
Government.
Somnieng Hoeurn never dreamed of coming to the U.S. to study.
The
Buddhist monk, who turned 33 Wednesday, was content to operate his Life
and Hope Association through which he and his fellow monks feed and
educate poor children from the area surrounding Hoeurn’s temple, Wat
Damnak, in the city of Siem Reap in north central Cambodia.
But in
2006, at age 25 Hoeurn attended St. Ambrose University, and at the
behest of Quad-City dentist Dr. Jon Ryder, who met Hoeurn while on a
trip to Cambodia. Hoeurn graduated in 2010. He recently received his
master’s degree in public administration Harvard University and its John
F. Kennedy School of Government. He is only the second Cambodian to be
admitted to the Kennedy School.
From a childhood filled with
hunger and violence to St. Ambrose and Harvard, a grateful Hoeurn took
time Thursday to take what could be a final tour of the St. Ambrose
campus. He heads home June 26 to work that would seem ominous to many.
But now Hoeurn said he has the tools to better serve his people.
“I
see St. Ambrose as giving me the seeds and the soil,” Hoeurn said.
“Now, I need to do my work. I take the seeds and soil and give it to my
people, and then the people need to do their part.
The group works extensively with improving the lives of women and children.
“We see the children as the future of the country, and the women as the mothers of the nation.”
Hoeurn
was born in 1980, a year after Vietnamese troops toppled Pol Pot whose
policies of forced labor and executions coupled with poor health care
and malnutrition, led to the deaths of an estimated 1 to 3 million
people.
As a boy, Hoeurn saw the dictator’s Killing Fields that
claimed his grandfather and more than one uncle. The murder of his
father, he said, remains mysterious.
At age 15, he knew he wanted
an education. He moved to Seim Reap and the temple Wat Damnak and found
his purpose among the impoverished Cambodian youth. He knew that if he
was hungry for food and an education, many others were, too.
Hoeurn
said the Life and Hope Association was founded to provide food to local
families, who in exchange allowed their children to attend school at
the temple.
The mission has grown to include an orphanage, a
boarding school for girls who want to continue their education beyond
junior high school and a sewing school that provides young women with a
marketable skill. There also is a junior high school and a language
school where students can learn English, which will help them get jobs
in the growing tourism industry, he said.
Of course, Hoeurn would
like to see his students complete their education at the university
level. However, he added, “It’s not enough for them get an education, so
they can simply improve themselves. It also is what they do with that
education.”
Whether the education is in business, engineering or
the social sciences, the goal of education is to be able to give back to
the community, he said. “It’s that quality of giving back we want
students to think about.”
