MONTANDON -- Sitting in her living room, her feet tucked beneath her, Larissa Luu remains amazed that she was singled out for the 2008 Young Heroes Award.
"It's just incredible that they thought my work was award-winning," she said.
Luu was selected by a panel of judges from the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia to receive the grand prize, a $1,000 savings bond and a laptop computer. She and her family will go to Philadelphia on Aug. 21 for the awards ceremony and banquet.
A rising senior at Milton Area Senior High School, the poised young woman was nominated for the award for her leadership of the Educate Cambodia campaign at the high school. Her advanced placement American history teacher, Michael Conn, nominated her following the conclusion of the campaign she organized to raise $30,000 and build a school in Cambodia.
"In my family, education always comes first," she said of her decision to lead the campaign. "I thought this was a good chance to help kids in another part of the world who don't have the opportunities we have in this country."
Her father, Anh Luu, escaped from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975, spending several weeks drifting in a boat in the South China Sea before being picked up by a U.S. Navy ship. He eventually came to the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation with a group of refugees, and sponsored by St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Lewisburg, settled in Montandon.
"I support my kids 100 percent," he said. "Education always comes first. I'm very proud of her."
He works at the Del Monte plant in Bloomsburg, and her mother, Linda, works at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lewisburg.
For her part, Luu said the most difficult aspect of the campaign was juggling her schedule to keep up, although speaking before groups was pretty scary at first.
"The first time I spoke was in front of the whole school," she said. "After that, it was easy."
"I was amazed to see the response from the community," she said. "It was amazing how quickly we raised the $30,000."
The Educate Cambodia project quickly became a community effort, including students in all grades in the Milton schools, churches and service groups. Luu created a PowerPoint presentation that included images of children in Cambodia, which moved some of her audiences to tears. She helped develop the design of a signature T-shirt to generate publicity. People all over the region contributed to the effort in amounts large and small.
There were some who derided the effort, but Luu wasn't fazed by them.
"I urged them to open their minds," she said. "There were rude and disrespectful comments made by some, but I don't take it personally."
Luu and Conn recently were interviewed by Voice of America, and the interview was broadcast in southeast Asia in the Khmer language.
Luu said she plans to attend the University of Pennsylvania and hopes to become a surgeon.
"I've always been interested in the medical field, and I want to do something worthwhile," she said.
When she goes to Philadelphia next month to accept the award, her entire family will be there looking on. Her brother, serving in the Air Force in New Mexico, will try to make it home, and her sister, an optometry student in Philadelphia, will be there along with her parents and Conn.
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Cambodia drive nets teen hero award
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