From a war-ravaged Vietnam to the budding nation of East Timor, Fr Quyen Vu (ASL) seeks to educate the world’s poor.
Quyen Vu was only ten years old when the communists took over his native country of Vietnam in 1975. “It was terrifying,” Quyen recalls, “you heard bombs, gunshots, and fighting all around you. We never traveled: most of the time we stayed indoors. We had to run to the bunker when we heard a bomb approaching”. Education was sporadic at best, his family (like all families) was watched, and his father needed to check in with authorities every other day.
In 1979, Quyen and his family escaped (illegally, as were all escapes) on a fishing boat bound for Malaysia. As horrific as life during the Vietnam War was, it began to get even worse. “We ran out of food and water. Many others didn’t even survive the voyage. A boy on my boat died during the trip”, Quyen remembers.
Quyen and one of his younger brothers lived by themselves for a year in a refugee camp of over 10,000 people in Kuala Lumpur. “We felt helpless. You were stuck waiting, hoping that a country would sponsor you. There we no schools or work: nothing to do but sit around and wait.”
In 1980, Quyen and his brother gained passage to Australia where they reunited with their family. Speaking not a word of English, he took ESL classes for one year before matriculating into a mainstream high school. After graduating, he attended the University of New South Wales, receiving a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
After working in the field for a year, Quyen decided that computers were not his calling. He looked into religious life, and decided to join the Jesuits in 1994. During his regency year in 2001, he responded to a call for teachers in the newly liberated nation of East Timor.
“While this small country struggled towards establishing itself as an independent nation, it had to confront many social problems as well as rebuilding its infrastructure,” Quyen said. When the country gained its independence from Indonesia, all of the educators left, resulting in few qualified teachers and no national curriculum. There are four languages in East Timor: Portuguese, Indonesian, English, and Tetun (the local spoken language), and it was difficult to teach any one of them (let alone all four) without any resources.
Quyen spent one year teaching there before returning to Australia to complete his religious studies, and was ordained in 2004. In 2007, his presence in East Timor was requested, and he was glad for the opportunity to return. “I saw the needs of the people,” Quyen reflected, “they were poor with very limited resources. In each classroom was a blackboard: that was it. Not even textbooks. Tuition was ten dollars a month [in U.S. dollars], and some families couldn’t even afford that.” He remained there until 2009.
Quyen’s motivation is the desire to enable students to learn. Despite the poor conditions, he still enjoyed working there because of the children’s wishes to improve their lives and their country. “If given the same opportunities as students in the United States and Australia”, Quyen said, “they would do very well”.
Quyen began his studies at Boston College last fall as a master’s student of Educational Administration at the Lynch School of Education, and will graduate this spring. As a Jesuit, he resides in gorgeous St. Mary’s Hall with other Jesuit members of the community. After graduation, he hopes to go back to East Timor and continue to serve students as a principal.
“[My life experiences] made me who I am today,” Quyen concludes. “I feel for the poor. My family had nothing, not even one dollar, when they arrived [in Australia], and had to start from the beginning.” His parents underwent many hardships in order to provide educational opportunities for their children, and he strives to help the underprivileged in return. Wherever he ends up next year, he will surely improve the lives of impoverished students and enable many to achieve their dreams.
The Lynch School of Education offers 24 graduate-level programs in four different departments: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology; Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation; Educational Leadership and Higher Education; and Teacher Education, Special Education, and Curriculum and Instruction.
Source: http://www.bc.edu/offices/gsc/news/2010/10-10-2010_Lynch_Profile.html