Professor Alexander Jun from Azusa Pacific University in California recently visited the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education at Curtin University. While Alex was here, he presented on the topic of academic mobility for disenfranchised Cambodian youth, having spent three years working in Cambodia.

1. Alexander Jun, Ph.D.
Professor of Higher Education
Azusa Pacific University

2. I grew up in Mondulkiri where
my family were farmers.There
are times when we had many
difficult times finding food so I
remember days when all we ate
were pickled chili peppers.

3. We also survived by eating
snakes, crabs, frogs,
grasshoppers, and crickets or
anything else we could catch.

4. One day when I was around five
years old my mom decided that
she should move to the capitol,
Phnom Penh, to look for a job
so that she can prepare for a
better future for my family.

5. When I moved to the city my
life changed in many ways. My
mom had married again.
Unfortunately her new
husband was really abusive to
me. Almost every day he got
drunk and he would beat me.

6. I met someone from
Cambodia’s Future and started
a new life in the orphanage.

7.  Establish a framework for college access
and resilience for disenfranchised Khmer
youth in Cambodia.
 Understand how educational institutions
collaborate with non governmental
organizations to ensure academic
success
 Offer recommendations for future policy
regarding education and mobility of high
risk youth in Cambodia.

8.  Bordered by Thailand, Vietnam,
and Laos
 The official ethnicity/language:
Khmer
 90% Khmer
 5% Vietnamese
 1% Chinese
 Khmer Rouge (1975-1979)
 Pol Pot Genocide of roughly 2
million people
 primarily elite and intelligentsia

9.  Educational infrastructure eradicated
 Low literacy rates
 Widespread poverty
 Government corruption
 Challenges with reliable public services
 Sex trafficking
 Disenfranchised youth (orphans)

10.  Access and
attendance
 High drop-out
 Low student
enrollment
 Low rates of
college
participation

11.  Ethnographic Approaches
 Grounded Theory
 Narrative Inquiry
“a collaboration between researcher and
participants, over time, in a place or series
of places, in social interaction…”

12.  Individual Interviews
 35 students (high school/college)
 25 administrators (teachers, counselors)
 Participant Observations
 Document Analysis
 Prolonged Engagement
 Over three years of participant observations

13. Feeder
Schools
College
Scholarship
House of
Strength
House of
Peace
Local
Admin
Agape
Int’l
Academy
Cambodia’s
Future
State-side
Headquarters

14.  House of Strength
 House of Peace
 Guardia Family
 Regimented
 Daily Chores
 ESL and English Days
 Homeschool
 Agape Int’l Academy

15.  Academic Rigor
 High Expectations (College Graduation)
 Current Status (35 students)
 10 Cambodia’s Future students have
graduated college (U.S., Thailand, India)
 15 enrolled in college
 5 currently enrolled in high school
 5 students…
10 graduates have returned to Cambodia

16. They wanted us children to
compete academically. Mr.
Guardia pushed us hard. And
he taught us that anything is
possible.
-Soka

17. Rules and expectations, such as
study-before-play, were widely
understood amongst the kids.
-Soka

18.  Pre-K–12 one class per grade
 465 full time student enrollment
 123 students hold Cambodian
citizenship
 23 nationalities represented
 $3,000 USD annual tuition
 $145,000 USD revenue from
tuition

19.  Approximately 50 students receive
need-based aid (22 receive 100%
aid)
 Full Tuition for Cambodia’s Future
Graduates (students must return to
live in Cambodia)
 “Catch Up” School
 Challenge: Heritage Language
and Culture

20. So they forced us to speak
English, but we still speak in
Khmer to ourselves. But when
we saw them coming, we
stopped, pretend like nothing
happened, like “Hey, what’s
up?” -Samath

21. It was tough at first. Like we
were not that happy at all, like
“Hey, we can’t speak Khmer?
That’s our language!”
-Soka

22.  Addressing Financial Realities
 Fully funded tuition, housing, travel.
 Community
 Sense of family among administration, staff,
teachers, and students
 Shared Vision
 Special commitment from all

23.  Recognize Organizational Saga
 Legacy of founding principles
 Maintain Cultural Integrity
 Focus on Systemic Change
 Reciprocity (Orphan Care)

24. Alexander Jun, Ph.D.
Professor of Higher Education
Azusa Pacific University
ajun@apu.edu