FIRST
THEY KILLED
MY FATHER
Photo by Movie Database
Photo by Cheoboran Oroum
FROM ZERO
Cheoboran Oroum, a junior in business management from Cambodia
Oroum said he saw his family’s story reelected in “First, They Killed My Father”, a movie Angeline Jolie directed based on the devastating Cambodian Civil War in the 1970s. Though he’d learned about that tragic history in high school, “It was first just like a story because I wasn’t there," he said.
"IT WAS FIRST JUST LIKE A STORY BECAUSE I WASN'T THERE.
AFTER I WATCHED THIS MOVIE, IT HELPED ME UNDERSTAND WHAT MY PARENTS, THEN MINORS, AND MY GRANDPARENTS EXPERIENCED."
Photo by The Movie Database
“This war should never have happened,” expressed Oroum explaining how Cambodia’s once-strong economy was destroyed during the conflict. Elderly Cambodians now teach the younger generation that education is the greatest investment to escape poverty, he said. This advice strengthened his determination to study hard, not just for himself but also for his next generations. “No one knows when we might have to start from zero again,” he said.
IT TOOK
30-40 YEARS
TO BUILD BACK CAMBODIAN'S ECONOMY
Oroum
EDUCATION IS
LIBERATION
This lesson on the value of education wasn’t just rooted in history; it mirrored Oroum’s own life. He recalled his “wasted” teenager time, failing high school twice, living without purpose or a vision for the future. But with his mother’s care and reminders about the value of learning, he turned his life around. “This could be my based-on-true story,” he said, “about how I changed my life 180 degrees to realize that only education can prepare me for the future.”
"If it were fiction, it wouldn’t really connect to my feelings.”
Watching a true story, Oroum said, has helped him to be “more human”.
Being human means having the empathy to treat others as you would want to be treated. “That emotion,” he added, “is what differentiates us from artificial intelligence and robots.”