{"id":92748,"date":"2019-03-15T14:37:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T00:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=92748"},"modified":"2020-03-13T15:03:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T01:03:15","slug":"jabsom-alum-cambodia-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/03\/15\/jabsom-alum-cambodia-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"John A. Burns School of Medicine\">JABSOM<\/abbr> alum thanks <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> for changing his life after &ldquo;killing fields&rdquo; of Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_74692\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D2jGZ3_I5bw?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"A JABSOM Grad&#039;s Remarkable Story of Resilience\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_92834\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92834\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/manoa-jabsom-seng-seang-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"Seang M. Seng\" width=\"250\" height=\"350\" class=\"size-full wp-image-92834\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/manoa-jabsom-seng-seang-headshot.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/manoa-jabsom-seng-seang-headshot-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/manoa-jabsom-seng-seang-headshot-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-92834\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seang M. Seng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When <strong>Seang M. Seng<\/strong> graduated from the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (<abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>) in 1988, it was a triumph unlike any other. He had survived the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge and all the pain and suffering that went with it, including the deaths of his entire immediate family in the &ldquo;killing fields&rdquo; of Cambodia.<\/p>\n<p>Seng and his future wife were liberated by the invading Vietnamese Army, relocated to a refugee camp in Thailand, and eventually found passage to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. Their first son was born 10 days later, in Honolulu, as an American citizen.<\/p>\n<p>Assisted by the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Refugee Organization, Seng was able to gain his high school equivalent degree at a class for adults held at Kaimuk\u012b High School. He studied at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> Community College<\/a> and then at <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\"><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa<\/a>. The <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> <a href=\"https:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/offices-programs\/imi\/\"><span aria-label=\"Imi\">&#699;Imi<\/span> <span aria-label=\"Hoola\">Ho&#699;&#333;la<\/span> Program<\/a>, which aids college graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds, allowed him to take the intensive pre-med course not once, but twice, to prepare him to attend medical school successfully.<\/p>\n<p>Medicine was a path Seng was pursuing at age 24 in Cambodia, when his life was turned upside down in Cambodia. After graduating from <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>, he worked as a family medicine doctor in Modesto, California, where many of his fellow Cambodian refugees resettled. All three of his children are training in medicine, including son Kosal, who also graduated from <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Seng wrote an acclaimed book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Starving-Season-One-Persons-Story\/dp\/1483473686\">The Starving Season<\/a><\/em>, about his life. On March 6, he returned to <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> to inspire current <span aria-label=\"Imi\">&#699;Imi<\/span> <span aria-label=\"Hoola\">Ho&#699;&#333;la<\/span> students, and to express his gratitude to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> at the annual Dean\u2019s Circle event for donors to the medical school.<\/p>\n<p>Read more and view the photo gallery on the <a href=\"https:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/i-feel-i-am-coming-home-for-here-i-began-my-second-life-says-1988-alumnus-author-of-book-about-surviving-the-brutality-of-cambodian-killing-fields\/\">JABSOM website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Tina Shelton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John A. Burns School of Medicine alum Seang M. Seng returns to his alma mater to inspire students with his story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,1004,31,9,56],"class_list":["post-92748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-imi-hoola","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92748"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113685,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92748\/revisions\/113685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}