Welcome to CUSP’s annual newsletter where we review the highlights and progress made during 2022. This year is the 14th year of pursuing academically bright and promising rural youth trapped in poverty.
2022 by the numbers
University and Vocational School: 27 Cusp students were supported as they studied at College and Vocational schools in Phnom Penh during 2022. For the first time 3 CUSP students attended an engineering school in Phnom Penh, The National Technological Training Institute.
High School: Cusp supported 44 students in grades 10-12 in 2 dorms during 2022. 14 graduating seniors took the National Exam for college placement. 13 passed, which is much higher than the national average.
CUSP Online: We continued with our online Zoom English classes to students in Phnom Penh, dorm students in Kampong Thom and Kavet students near the border to Laos.
Student Profiles
Here is a picture of an elementary class taken in 2006 in the village of Prasat Ballangoutside of Kampong Thom. Three Cusp students were part of this class. Their names are Hit Lin, Bob Deang and Soulong Morn. They lived close together and were all friends.
Here is Hit Lin in 2007.
Where are Hit Lin, Soulong Morn and Bob Deang now?
Hit Lin studied IT and French in Phnom Penh. After graduating he was hired by a French company as an IT specialist. He was then hired as the IT supervisor for a medical services company, When I caught up with him, he was on assignment in Indonesia.
A few years ago, he decided to give back and built a dorm so that poor students from rural areas can go to high school. Here is the dorm that Hit Lin built 70 km north of Kampong Thom.
Soulong works full time as a Chinese and English interpreter. She also started her own marketing business. Here she is in a recent picture with her two advisors and Wayne Lewis a CUSP board member.
Bob Deang first worked for Honda in Cambodia and is now working as a production engineer with the Minebea electronics corporation in Phnom Penh.
When CUSP started these were the types of stories we dreamed would happen and now they are a reality.
Zoom English Classes
Two CUSP students scored in the top 5% nationally on the High School exam for graduating 12th graders. While attending college they have taken over the responsibility of teaching the CUSP Zoom English class. They wanted to give back and refused a salary. Sophorn and Baon have taught English for three hours every weekend for 1 ½ years.
When the first group of students started in the dorms in 2009, we didn’t have a success story to show them. Now, the new students can see Hit Lin, Soulong and Deang and over 100 others to realize that it’s possible. In addition the students are being taught weekly by two students, Baon and Sophorn, who also grew up in 3rd world rural poverty.
2023 and beyond
CUSP will continue in 2023 with our commitment to high school and college students. 16 new 10th graders were just selected to start in our dorms in Kampong Thom in January. 15 students will be graduating, leaving the dorms, and now go to Phnom Penh to attend college and vocational school.
CUSP continues to extend its reach. We are increasing our commitment to reach Kavet youth on the border to Laos, The poverty is so severe that the average life expectancy among Kavet males is 39 years. CUSP’s partner, Anne Thomas has worked in literacy with rural Kavet since the early 2000’s. The biggest difficulty for her bright, young students is that it is almost impossible for them to attend secondary or high school. The reason is for 6 months a year the roads to many of their rural villages are impassable.
Below are 2 pictures of what happens to the roads during the rainy season.
A tricky road!!!
Beyond tricky!
There are few schools beyond the rivers. Anne’s dorm in the town of Banlung gives the students a place to stay in town and attend high school. CUSP partners with Anne by providing 5 university scholarships to these students once they graduate from high school.
It is with excitement that we are looking to expand the work and reach of CUSP. Our slogan has been to “find Einstein under a palm tree”! Finding these new students among the Kavet only means that we now get to go a little further!!
2022 has been a good year. Your continued financial support has enabled more rural students to escape poverty through education this past year.
Because of your support, and CUSP’s 14-year track record of success, we have the opportunity to help even more students in 2023. Our infrastructure, local staffing and volunteers are in place, which means that our only limitation is the financial cost of supporting each new student.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ray