Search Results for: pan the extraordinary student

(Friends, before I write about today, I wanted to mention that we are working on another Bishop Maginn Amazon Refugee Toy Wist List for the newly arriving Afghan refugees, now coming steadily into Albany. The people who needed blankets and asked for them have them, at least as of now; I spoke with a refugee coordinator and also with Sue Silverstein, and both said the urgent need was toys for the children who are stranded in strange apartments and won’t be going to school until January. We’ll put one up as soon as we get detailed information about what the children want. We’d love to get the toys here in time for Christmas, so we’re scrambling on the list.)

Maria and I were both high as kites when we left Bishop Maginn today. In addition to bringing a carload of blankets, comforters, and new boots declined by the Amish (but eagerly sought by refugees).

Maria bought four new quilts for the refugees constructed from four never-used quilt tops and some new ones batting she had purchased for her quilts. They meet all of the CDC and state health guidelines.

She held one of the new tops out for Sue Silverstein’s art class, they wanted to know how to close up the quilts.

Maria and Sue Silverstein talked, and Maria said the quilts need to be tacked, that is tied up, and Sue asked if Maria would be willing to come and teach her art class how to do the tacking. Maria was mobbed by students who wanted to learn how to sew and tack a quilt.

She stayed at the school through lunch and spent well over an hour showing the students – primarily refugees – how to do it properly and safely. They were mesmerized, they are eager to help getting these quilts to the new arrivals.

She said she hadn’t factored in their tiny hands; it was harder for them to thread needles than for her.

The room was stuffed to the rafter with boxes for the Afghan refugees, and the planned Thanksgiving baskets, towels, and blankets are pouring in all week. The free store the school set up for the refugees has sold through three times, but vast loads of packages arrived again today; they are stacked all over Sue’s classroom and in other spaces.

Sue signed Maria and me up to come in and help stuff the Thanksgiving Baskets just before the holiday.

Two refugee agencies have volunteered to distribute them. The blankets and towels go out as quickly as they come in, the need is acute. We believe that every refugee that we know of who was cold now has appropriate bedding and blankets.

(Above. There are boxes everywhere, all around the classroom and in other rooms. They go out as soon as they come in, refugee coordinators pull up in their vans and SUVs all day to get them out where they belong.)

We were both surprised by the student’s love of this class and Sue called up to ask Maria if she would be willing to teach a sewing and quilting class. Quilting is very popular in some of the student’s home countries and there is great interest in it. She enthusiastically agreed.

I took advantage of the time to take some portraits of the refugee’s faces, they photograph beautifully and are perfect for my Leica.

Zinnia was hanging out with the students the whole time, BMHS is like a second home to her. I’ll put up some photos of her separately tonight, but I did want to show the time, Emily Benson, a reporter for the Evangelist, the Catholic Weekly,  showed up to interview Sue and me and Zinnia.

She wanted to know all about Maria and also how easily Zinnia fit into the school. I love Maria, as is obvious, but I am also proud of her. These new quilt tops were sent to her some time, and she wasn’t sure how to use them. When the call went out for comforters, she went to work and patched the tops together.  Then she turned it into an art class for refugee and inner-city kids. That is turning into a regular class for her to each at Bishop Maginn.

This is how good grows. I am very happy to be back at the school every week, we are talking about another writing class for me to teach now that the pandemic is easing.

Channel 10 reporter Jamie DeLine, who did those stories about Zinnia as Prom Queen, also came, but we had to leave before we got to see her. She’s planning on doing a piece on the donations. Apart from everything else, I’m so glad that Bishop Maginn High School is getting the attention it deserves. We need a place like this.

Emily was amazed at the scene – 30 to 40 students piling in for lunch – everyone wants to eat lunch in Sue’s classroom – boxes and bags everywhere, packages coming in and out, and Zinnia walking calmly through the crowd greeting everyone and wagging her tail.

It wasn’t until much later that I noticed french fries were dropping mysteriously all over the room, Zinnia was having a blast.

it was wonderful to see the students loving Maria’s gift of quilts, and also to see the outpouring of donations for the Afghan refugees. This is what I call a heart-lifter. More and more Afghan residents are arriving almost daily. The city is expecting 500.

Don’t let anyone tell you that Americans are mean-spirited and nasty, this is my news, and this is the America I love and believe in. Thank you for all of your support. I am beyond words.

You might remember Pole, we bought him a mattress a few months ago so he and his brother don’t have to sleep on the floor. He is from Myanmar and was excited to help get these four new quilts into the hands of the refugees who asked for them.

He had a lot of trouble threading the needle, Maria stuck with him until he did it. He was determined. We will never forget this day – the boxes, the donations, the kids, the quilts, the love, and connection. Don’t be mad. Be good.

Please lookout for the Amazon Bishop Maginn Afghan Refugee Toy Wish List going up over the next few days. What a day this was.

It was a great joy to drive to Albany with the brand new Ipad (plus accessories) that Nancy, a member of the Army Of Good, bought for Pan Young, an extraordinarily gifted senior at Bishop Maginn’s going to Sage University’s pre-med biology program on full scholarship.

Pan was described by her long-time teacher, Sue Silverstein, as one of the most remarkable students she has ever encountered.

She graduated with flying colors, but this is a sad and painful time for Pan, her family, and for many of her fellow students, many of whom survived the war, persecution and dangerous refugee camps.

Pam and her family are struggling – as are scores of Bishop Maginn refugee students, many of who are Asian – with the bloodshed and violence in Myanmar after a brutal military coup there.

Nancy Flakes, a blog reader and member of the Army Of Good, decided to send me an Ipad, keyboard, and stylus pen to bring to her as a going away to college gift. I also got Pan a new digital camera.

The horror stories from these refugee families, so many driven out of Burma (Myanmar) in several genocidal purges of dissidents and Karen  Christians dating back to the late 1980’s.

The fighting is much broader now, Myanmar is descending into civil war, but these families are among the most vulnerable.

Many of these children at Bishop Maginn grew up in refugee camps; they hear stories of missing or shot grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, and neighbors every day.

They thought the worst of it was over. It isn’t.

Pan wants to speak for the families under brutal siege. Her relatives told her that they had been forbidden from leaving their homes for any reason, including shopping for food. If they light a fire to try to cook, soldiers fire into the house.

If they use their cell phones to call her or for her, or go on the Internet, soldiers and police monitor Web traffic, and they come and arrest or shoot them in their homes.

Many are shot for going out at night to forage for food or simply for stepping outside in their own yards.

Many of their relatives have fled to the country to seek shelter and hide from the Army. But there is little food in the country either. Some say they are starving and losing hope that the outside world will interview. U.N. observers say hundreds of children have been shot and killed in protests.

Sue Silverstein, the school’s theology and art teacher says many of the Bishop Maginn students are hearing these stories and are angry and upset. I talked to several of them at the school today. Their stories are wrenching; they come pouring in every day, their hearts are breaking.

She works to help and comfort these children every day. Everyone one of them in the senior class is going to college.

“At Bishop Maginn,” Sue told me today, “our students have have a lot of things to adjust to. Routines have been disrupted, and milestones missed”.

She said watching the refugee students struggle to cope not only with COVID but with the danger and unrest in their homeland has been heartbreaking.

Pan’s mother is do devastated by the suffering in their family that she has broken down. Pan decided to go to college in Albany so she can care for her.

The families keep pleading with their families here for help, but there is little they can do.

“These refugee students are loving and always grateful,” said Sue, “they meet stress with prayer and positive attitudes. However, the news of relatives in peril has been almost impossible for them to cope with. The stories of destruction and death, of imprisonment and confinement, of loss of freedom, have left their families reeling. It is so important to them that the world hear their stories. They pray that the world will open their hearts and the at that help will come to their people soon.”

Jan hopes to spread this message as far and wide as she can. The Ipad will help.  I thank Nancy Flakes for her generosity and thoughtfulness, Pan was thrilled to get her Ipad.

I am honored to know Pan and hear her call me friend, and to see her honesty, courage, and dedication to America, the country she loves so much.

Bishop Maginn will miss Pan, she has so many friends there.

She hopes to become a U.S. citizen in August. I think we will all be proud to have her. She is dynamic, hard-working, and has a great heart. She is also quite brave.

You might remember Pan Young from Myanmar, Malaysia, and several prison/refugee camps. She is now a Bishop Maginn High School senior heading for Sage College and a full scholarship to enter a pre-med program.

Her long time friend, teacher, and fierce advocate Sue Silverstein described her to me in this way:

“Pan is exceptional,” says Sue Silverstein, “life has thrown many obstacles in her path. More obstacles than any young girl should have to endure. She never gives up; she finds a way. She is an exceptional student, an exceptional daughter, an exceptional friend, an exceptional member of her community, and basically an exceptional human being. I am so proud of all she has accomplished and know that she will change the world.”

I met Pan more than a week ago, and Sue was not exaggerating.

Today was a good and richly deserved day for her.

The digital camera that I bought for her arrived at Bishop Maginn. A wonderfully generous blog reader – Nancy Frakes, a reader of my blog, contacted me and asked if it was okay to order an Ipad for Pan as she prepares to head off to school.

It sure was. Pan could hardly believe people are that good.

Pan sent Nancy a message today: She said she was shocked when her Theology Teacher (Sue Silverstein) gave her the digital camera that I bought for her, and then was told that a blog reader “also bought me a new Ipad with keyboard and pen! I was so shocked and ecstatic and wanted to thank you personally…Thank you so much. I truly appreciate the gifts and can’t wait to see and use them.”

Thanks so much, Nancy, for your generosity; a new Ipad will mean a great deal to Pan when she gets to Sage University in September. Sue said she was shocked and happy.

It is a gift itself to be able to give this exceptional human being a hand.

I met Pan Young a couple of years ago, she helped me train Zinnia for therapy work at Bishop Maginn High School. But until this week, I did not get to know her well. Sue Silverstein, her teacher, and mentor at Bishop Maginn High School urged me to meet her.

She is, in fact, an amazing story, a refugee child shunted from country to country, from refugee camp to refugee camp, her family ravaged and scattered by a horrible genocide, shuned mostly in hostile countries, until the United Nations got her to America in July of 2014, before the gates slammed shut.

“I am grateful to talk about what is happening in my country,” she told me. “Democracy is dying there, people are being shot down in the streets. I want to speak about this. My mother has been shattered by the violence there, we can speak with our family, everyone is terrified of the military.”

Pan works several jobs, takes care of her mother, and has just been granted a full Presidential Scholarship to attend Sage University’s Albany branch, where she will study pre-med biology.

It is amazing how many times I’ve seen the teachers at this school take in the most troubled and bewildered children, give them a safe place to learn, teach them English and math and history, encourage their art, and steer them to good schools, so very often on scholarship.

The teachers have specialized in helping their students figure out what college they want to go to and get there.

Pan hopes to become a “proud American citizen” sometime this summer. She also hopes to spread the word about the atrocities in Myanmar.

At Bishop Maginn, every refugee child who wants to go to college – and that is all of them – goes. They go on to be successful and conscientious citizens.

Pan is one of the most extraordinary  When she came to school, she could barely speak English. Now, she is an honors student.

She was happy to talk to me, she thought I would be willing to talk to her about the horrors in Myanmar and how they affect the refugee children from that country.

Pan is articulate, passionate, and very clearly, intelligent.

“Pan is exceptional,” says Sue Silverstein, “life has thrown many obstacles in her path. More obstacles than any young girl should have to endure. She never gives up, she finds a way. She is an exceptional student, an exceptional daughter, an exceptional friend, an exceptional member of her community, and basically an exceptional human being. I am so proud of all she has accomplished and know that she will change the world.”

Sue isn’t exaggerating. She and the other refugees from that region have seen a lifetime of horror, fear and depravation. I didn’t hear one self-pitying or complaining word come out of her mouth.

Pan and I sat down for a long time together last Friday. She was eager to meet with me to talk about the tragedy unfolding after the Myanmar military coup.

Her mother is very disturbed by the violence there.

She fell into a deep depression when the military overthrew the elected government in March. She had offers from a number of colleges, but she chose to stay in Albany so she could take care of her mother. “I would never leave her behind,” she said.

Nearly 800 citizens of Myanmar, many children, and all civilians have been gunned down by soldiers in full daylight as they protest.

Pan’s grandfather was killed in the first genocide against the Karen people, her family fled Myanmar for some years.  Her father was separated from the family for six years.

The marriage did not survive the genocide,  and Pan’s mother was crushed by the violence and the danger to her family and cousins, many of whom have fled the cities to the country, where they are in hiding and searching for food.

Pan’s family initially fled to Malaysia, where she was forbidden to attend the schools there and where Myanmar refugees were persecuted and arrested if they tried to work.

Her mother is desperate to hear from her family, but they are all hiding in the forests outside of the cities.

“I’m grateful to be here in the United States,”  said Pan “where I hope to become a proud American citizen,” she said, “but I want to do everything I can do to alert people to the horrors in Myanmar.”

Pan is confident, poised, she has learned to be honest and direct.

She speaks almost flawless English and the one word teachers and students use about her is “confident.” Sue is right, as usual, Pan will go places.

She knows what she wants to say and where she wants to go. I have no doubt she will get there.

Her mother is so upset, Pam said, that she gave her a handwritten letter in Burmese to give to me,  written in longhand in Burmese about the families being arrested, persecuted. She is so eager to get the word out.

Pan said coming to the United States was difficult, “I didn’t like pizza,” she said, “and all the other children liked Pizza. I understood nothing about what was going on.”

She also worked hard to learn English.

“I couldn’t follow anything,” she said, “and the classes were so big.”

Her life improved dramatically, she said, when she got to Bishop Maginn four years ago.

“The teachers were so different here, and so are the students. They encouraged me, taught me, helped me.” She learned English quickly, made friends, and threw herself into class and homework.

“I love this school,” she said, almost tearing up. “I will miss it everyday. The people care about you here.”

Pan had a mission in our interview, she wanted me to understand how bad things were in her original country.  I promised to pass along the message. “The country is not right,” she said. “We need to have freedom and this is now how freedom should be.”

I’ve met some amazing refugee children at Bishop Maginn, Pan is one of the most impressive.

She isn’t seeking any funds, she wants to take care of things herself if she can. She did tell me she looked on my blog and admired my photography.

I asked if she would like a beginner’s digital camera. She lit up. It’s on the way.