Burmese students from Heritage High School got a chance to share their culture with some of their fellow students Thursday night during a member family dinner at Cornerstone Youth Center, Monroeville.
Heritage senior Ka Bee spoke about his family's experience of leaving Burma, living in a Thailand Refugee Camp, and then coming to America. Ka Bee said his family walked for three days on foot to get over the Thailand border. He was born in the Thai refugee camp and lived there for the first 13 years of his life.
Ka Bee's parents wanted to bring up their family under better conditions and were eventually able to get refugee status to come to the United States. They lived first in North Carolina, but the family was not comfortable living there because there were no other Burmese in the school Ka Bee attended or the neighborhood where the family lived. None of the family members spoke English. Luckily, they had relatives in Fort Wayne, so they resettled here.
Ka Bee said his parents are very happy to be here where there are so many more opportunities for their family, and so many more freedoms than what they would have had if they remained in Thailand. Next year Ka Bee plans on attending IPFW. He thanked the teachers, administrators, and center staff for all the help the students have received.
Kent Castleman, executive director at Cornerstone Youth Center, said when they learned last year that 80 of the 120 student's coming to Heritage after the closing of Paul Harding High School were Burmese, they wanted to do something to reach out and help these new students. The center already had an after-school tutoring program, something Castleman said they thought would be helpful for the new students.
So they worked out an agreement with the East Allen School District to transport students to the CYC for homework help in their after-school program. When the kids are done with their homework, they participate in the activities at the drop-in center.
Castleman said many of the Burmese students had never played pool, and learning the new game gave the kids common ground for interacting with their American counterparts. Some of the Burmese students have been in the country for four years, while others have only recently arrived, but they were able to communicate with each other through learning the game.
Looking around CYC Thursday night, Burmese teens and the American kids were sitting together and chatting, and in the game room they were playing pool and air hockey. Heritage principal Robert Rohrbacher said the transition has run very smoothly.
“They are a nice group of kids who fit in very well,” Rohrbacher, said.
Cornelius C. Fullove, Restorative Transition Manger at Heritage, said one of the biggest challenges they faced was just getting the right mix of food in the cafeteria. Many of the new Burmese students are Muslim, which means they have some foods they just cannot eat, while others cannot eat food prepared at the school at all. It has taken some minor menu adjustments, but now they have alternatives the new students can eat.
Food was not an issue Thursday night as specially prepared Burmese dishes were part of the menu along with American cuisine.
Castleman said attendance at the center was higher before daylight saving time kicked in because many of the parents worried about having their children arrive home after dark. Now they have anywhere from five to 15 students attending the after-school study program. Thursday evening gave the parents a chance to see the center for the first time and meet the staff.
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