Merced City School District

Transcription

Thank you Chancellor Leland Now my honor to introduce the honorable Paul Lo. Judge Lo was appointed to the superior court of Merced in December of 2013, becoming the first Hmong-American judge in the United States. He arrived in this country at the age of eleven as a refugee from Laos and as a true success story. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from UC Davis and his Juris Doctorate from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. Nineteen years ago, he became the first person of Hmong descent to practice law in the State of California and continued to practice law in the Central Valley until his recent appointment to the Superior Court. We're proud to have judge Lo as a founding member at the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees. He is an active volunteer for numerous important social causes and he lives in Merced with his wife and five children. Please join me in welcoming to the podium the Honorable Paul Lo. I have two simple questions for us to reflect on. How did you get here and where do you go from here? Well first, how did you get here has been alluded to already. Each of you has a wonderful story about your journey to this point. You came from all parts of California. From out of state and even out of the country. You are the first in your family to attend college, the sons and daughters of parents who labored in the hot suns and freezing winters at the Central Valley Farms. You persevered through personal and financial hardships. So the diploma you receive today represents not only academic achievement, it represents the triumph of the human spirit in climbing the hills of life. Almost forty years ago, I started climbing a hill on my own. One which took me through jungles and refugee camps, across vast oceans, to a strange land covered with snow, to a new language, a new culture, and a new identity. At the age of seven, I've fled my birth country allows as a refugee at the Vietnam war. Most people know about the Vietnam War. Not too many know that Laos was also fully engulf in that war. Even fewer people know how the Hmong people became a key US ally. At the beginning of the Vietnam war, the US needed people to retrieve US pilots shot down in the jungles of Laos and to stop North Vietnamese soldiers from crossing over Laos to transport supplies and ammunitions to South Vietnam. CIA advisors for dispatched to allow us to recruit, train, and arm a secret guerrilla soldiers. My father and many relatives were among them. At its peak, the seret army number more than 30,000, the biggest CIA operation in the world more than two million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, mostly from American air attacks on communist forces. An average of one bomb was dropped on Laos every eight minutes for nine straight years. An estimated 40,000 at the Hmong people died as a result of war. In 75', after the US pulled out and the country fell, we fled Laos overnight. Only with the clothes on our backs. On foot through the jungles Laos for nine straight days, we arrived in Thailand to join thousands of Hmong refugees in an impoverished refugee camp. For the next four years, that cramped and unsanitary camp was my home. Food was scarce, healthcare non-existent. We hunted mice and rats nightly for food. The Thai guards were cruel and merciless. Women were raped, refugees were being killed without cause and with impunity. Somehow we survive, persevere that ordeal. In 79', we came to America and the first settled in Denver, Colorado, where we saw snow for the first time. Already eleven-years-old, I started school in the fifth grade, not knowing one word of English. My teacher did not know what to do with me. While the other students studied their class material, she seated me in a corner classroom with coloring books. A fifth grader with the knowledge and skill level of a preschooler, I felt stupid, ashamed, and out a place. I had no ambition to be the smartest student or the highest achiever in the class. I just wanted to be a regular student. And that was 35 years ago. So I leave you with two personal reflections, first it seems that a poor... it seems amazing that a poor refugee like me, whose parents had no formal education and raised eight children on welfare and through backbreaking labor in the farms at the Central Valley, could go on to graduate from the University California to be an attorney and now judge. But it is neither amazing nor unique. It is a story that happens every day in this country through the centuries. It is the story of the American dream. In America, tragedies can give rise to triumphs, blessings from needless sufferings, and hope out of desperate situations. However gloomy the situation you may face in the years ahead, keep getting up each morning with a smile. The sun will rise on you again just like it did for me and the Hmong people. Life is never fair. We can find plenty of reasons to be bitter. For the Hmong people, there are forty thousand reasons and more to be bitter. But exactly a month ago on April 18 2014, when I was sworn in as judge among family and friends. I witness my father and many in the audience shed tears of joy, not of bitterness. Second, it is tempting to think that you must be the smartest, hardest working, and most courageous to achieve as much as you have. Maybe you are but I am not and never was. Instead, there are so many people in my life who cared about and contributed to my success. Even up to 35 years I remember my first teacher in fifth grade. She may not have know what to do with me, but she often pinched my puffy cheeks and told me everything would be okay. My high school history teacher encourage me to pursue a law so I can help the Hmong community. My economics professor at UC Davis wrote a wonderful letter recommendation for me for law school. And when I was applying for judge, many friends and colleagues flatly wrote letters to support, talk to decision makers, spend time preparing me for interviews. For many of us who are fortunate enough to have a wonderful parents, how can we forget about them. My parents and the Hmong people of their generation paved the way for me and so many others to be in this country. They left behind everything they ever knew, lost everything their own, traveled through dense jungles, riddled with enemy bullets, cross raging rivers that drought thousands of mothers and children, and survive impoverish refugee camps in enclosed on barbed wires all for their children. So graduates, how can we not humble ourselves with a humble spirit, with a thankful spirit. We are only beneficiaries of those who came before us, who cared about our success, and who sacrificed much for us. The second question: Where do we go from here? Well, hopefully not back to your parents home to a lounge and live of them.But if you should, and you don't know what comes next, that is perfectly fine. Even just a year ago, I had no clue I would be a judge. But wherever you go, just as my fifth-grade teacher assured me, you will be okay. In fact you, will be better than okay because of your education here, you will go on to solve the most challenging problems of our time. And wherever you end up remember that because someone help you to achieve the American dream. It is only right and imperative that you pave forward to keep the American dream alive for future generations. There is a Hmong expression use for both hellos and goodbyes that i think is quite fitting for those up the Bobcats family. And as *Hmong words.* Translated, "eat good and be well." Bobcats of 2014, wherever your journey takes you, I wish you always to eat good and be well. Thank you and congratulations! *Cheers* Thank you Judge Lo that very inspiring message. I'd Now like to introduce our student speaker Vanessa Estavillo. Ms. Estavillo is a management major from Carson California. During her time on campus, she served as a leadership programs intern in the Office of Student Life, tutor and success mentor for the Calvin E. Bright Success Center, and led the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity as its first female president. Please join me in welcoming miss Estavillo. Thank you Provost Peterson. Good morning to all: family, friends, faculty, and staff. And thank you for being here today. It is my honor to stand before you on behalf of the 2014 graduating class at the University of California Merced. *Cheers* At one point or another, during our undergraduate career, we've all been asked the question, "why did you come to UC Merced?" Often time it is met with a smile or laugh. Some say that Merced offered the best financial support, that they were interested in research, and small class sizes. Or my favorite answer, that Merced sort of chose them. I like the graduating class to think about how they'd answer this question. I came to UC Merced looking for opportunity. As the newest UC in the system the orientation leader than bobcat collars assured me that this was where I can make my mark, earn an outstanding degree, and be part a new future in education. UC Merced, I was told, offered undergraduates the chance to do research, published journals, and procure competitive internships. They told us as freshmen that this with all possible. And they were right. What they did not tell us, however, whether the next four years our lives would shape the people we are today. Many of us came from the city to the country not knowing what to expect from place we'd never heard of before. Yet some came from even smaller town then had to adjust to a bigger city. Some of us are first-generation college students, pioneering the way for younger siblings. Walking through the Beginning Statue on our first day, none of us knew exactly how much our lives a change. Over the last four years, we've made friend, mistakes, and decisions that would impact our futures. Countless nights have been spent in the library cramming an entire semester into one night and endless hours have been spent procrastinating on social media or socializing in the Lantern. We joined organizations, worked on campus, even studied abroad. We've seen change happen, we've made change happen. And eventually Merced became our home. Three years ago, Half-Dome, SSB and SSM didn't exist. Now even more buildings have been constructed in the plans for expansion are impressive. There are more students applying to UC Merced that than ever before. And college graduates before have gone out to spread the name of our school. One day I'm going to come back and tell my kids that when I was here, our campus with more or less the straight line, and that walking up the hill was, for some reason, an intense workout. I will tell them this is where I have the opportunity to be part of a great legacy and a traditional excellence. Truly these were great years, but do not let these be the best years. No matter where you're headed after this day: graduate school, the armed forces, traveling, or an exciting new career, take what you have learned here and embrace the future that lies ahead. We've been blessed with professors who genuinely care about our academic enrichment and a faculty who have provided the support and encouragement needed to reach our full potential. We are innovator, we are dedicated, we are trailblazers. That UC Merced willingness to challenge the process ensures that we are ready to succeed out there. So I say to you today, my fellow graduates, follow your dreams. Make a difference in the world. And no matter what, remember that you will always be UC Merced Bobcat. Congratulations class of 2014!