Education Success Story

Nearly six years ago, when I first moved to Thailand, I met a boy named Somchai. He was 12 at the time and was the older brother of one of my kindergarten students that I taught at an after school program. He was living in a Christian children's home since his family was too poor to take care of all their children. I didn't know him well, but over the years, I would chat with him when he came home for school breaks. He studied alternative school at the children's home, meaning he would only have class a couple times a week and would do standardized tests at the end of each semester. When he finished his 9th grade exams, he came home, but he wanted to study more. I was determined that this kid would finish high school.

When he came home and decided to work for a year to wait for his friend to finish her 9th grade exams so they could study together, I was sure it would never happen. But, I kept after him, visited him at work and home and reminded him when the summer break came that we needed to get him a scholarship so he could study. He did all the work himself, finding the school he wanted to attend, finding out when the entrance tests were and letting me know when the parent teacher meeting was, when to pay fees and get uniforms. I met with him last week to check in and see how his first term had gone.

He was in a rush, and wanted to just grab some McDonalds to go so he could get back to studying for his test, but I persuaded him to sit and chat for a few minutes. An hour went by as he told all about his struggles and successes. He said at first it was so difficult to keep up since he had no experience attending regular school and suddenly he had all these classes and homework and tests. He took the initiative to talk to each of his teachers and explain that he really wanted to do well but needed a little extra help in some subjects to keep up. All his teachers but one have been giving him extra tutoring, extra time to do assignments and just generally encouraging him. He said that the friend he waited for to start school dropped out after just two weeks, but he was determined to keep going no matter what. He really values his education and knows that this scholarship is a big opportunity for him.

He has had a lot of struggles with his family since starting school. He is the first person in his family to study past 6th grade. His mom never went to school, his older brother and sister just passed 6th grade and stopped, so the fact that he is on track to finish high school and has dreams of college is a huge deal. It's hard for him because his mom doesn't understand that he has so much homework and tutoring he needs to do with his friends. She thinks he just runs around all the time with his buddies and doesn't contribute to the house. He says when he tries to explain, she just scolds him and it really hurts him. He told me "I have all these dreams that God has put in my heart, and when I try to talk to my family about them, they just laugh and say it will never happen. So I just keep to myself and do my work and share with you." I encouraged him that he is not alone, he has a lot of people supporting him, me, the people who gave him this scholarship, his teachers, and God.

The best part of this story is that before he started at school, he prayed about starting a cell group or Bible study that would be a school club. When he started, he made a new friend who had the same idea, so they went to the main office together to present their idea. The school said they had never had a campus cell group before, but they could certainly do it. They just need 40 members to make it official. Right now, they have 11 members and they meet on Fridays after school in the courtyard to worship, pray and read the Bible together. It's so cool to see how God is using this 18 year old boy to impact his community and that even though he has so many struggles, he is not giving up and not turning his back on God. I look forward to attending his graduation in a couple years, and pray that he can continue on to study university as well.