For more information, contact Cindy Young, (937) 775-3232.

December 2, 1998

Lived in Cincinnati

CAMBODIAN CONCENTRATION CAMP SURVIVOR
GRADUATES FROM WRIGHT STATE SATURDAY

It is not surprising that Nye Arnold is the first in her family to graduate from college. For years, all of her family's energies were focused on basic survival, not on luxuries like education.

Nye, whose full name is Sokvanthynin, fled Cambodia at the age of nine with her mother and sister. Her natural father, older brother and grandparents were dead of starvation or had been executed by the Khmer Rouge.

This Saturday, Nye's mother, Yan Ing Me, will watch as Nye graduates from Wright State University with a bachelor's degree in management information systems from the College of Business and Administration.

"I look at the situation I went through, and I am surprised I am alive," said Nye. "I've learned a lot about survival, and I cherish those nightmares. That is why I don't take getting an education for granted.

"My real education started here in the United States. My parents did not let us go to school in Cambodia because of the war. It was in the concentration camps that I first learned to read and write my native language."

After spending nearly three years in refugee camps in Thailand, Nye, her sister and mother were sponsored by three families from Florida, and were brought there in 1982.

Nye grew up in Cincinnati, where the family moved to be with her mother's cousin and only surviving blood relative. Nye graduated from Withrow High School and later taught English as a second language there as a teaching assistant for five years.

Nye will march with nearly 1,200 other Wright State graduates Saturday at the university's 32nd semiannual commencement ceremony. The event begins at 10 a.m. in the university's Ervin J. Nutter Center.

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