| Show What we can learn from our students who are winning top honors and jobs Asian-Americ- an F117' YEXCEll e1P TRINH WAS JUST 9 KIM-C- in Vietnam when her father used his savings to buy a passage for her on a fish- I ing boat It was a costly and risky sacrifice for the family placing Kim-C- hi on the small boat among strangers in hopes she would eventually reach the United States where she would get a good education and enjoy a better life Before the boat reached safety in Malaysia the supply of food and water ran out Still alone Kim-Cmade it to the United States coping with a succession of three foster families But when she graduated from San Diego's Patrick Henry High School in 1988 she had a straight-average and scholarship offers from Stanford and Cornell universities "I have to do well—it's not even a question" said the diminutive now a sophomore at Cornell "I owe it to my parents in Vietnam" Kim-Cis part of a tidal wave of bright highly motivated who are suddenly surging into our best colleges Although make up only 24 percent of the nation's population they constitute 171 percent of the undergraduates at Harvard 183 percent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 273 percent at the University of California at Berkeley g With Asians being the ethnic group in the country—two out of five immigrants are now Asian—these figures will increase At the University of California at Irvine a staggering 351 percent of the undergraduates are but the proportion in the fresh- man class is even higher: 41 percent Why are the doing so well? Are they grinds as some stereotypes suggest? Do they have higher IQs?? Or are they actually teaching the rest off us a lesson about values we have long treasured but may have misplaced—like : hard work the family and education? Not all Asians are doing equally well Poorly educated Cambodian and Hmong refugee youngsters need special help And resent being labeledI a "model minority" feeling that is justt another form of prejudice by white Americans an ironic reversal of the discriminatory laws that excluded most Asian immigration to America until 1965 But the academic success of many( has prompted growing concern among educators parents and other students Some universities have what look like unofficial quotas hi (1 3 t - f''''''''"o-- ' ' 4t4IWu'ir dfr - A - "‘ rt li Lt-- 44 hi Asian-America- 1 Asian-America- ns t 0 1 t ''' 4 1 441 4 t z2 ik t t I I:4 t Op fastest-growin- i40411t14 4 lrtie 4 $6( 1 Yeen Hue 0 - t 1) 1(1107 NO 4' 4't - 1k (7Z' Afilr 1 ) -- 4 All rill00Jr Lsk t ns Asian-Americ- ' - e1 2 °' 1 I sky lk - r N' ' t err- - ost 6 ' 4 ' ' 14 an 4 - ' ' A ) - Yuen a senior now felt guilty when she didn't get all A's her first Asian-America- ns Asian-America- ns 1 440 BY FOX COVER PHOTOGRAPH -------- IIIIIIIIMI' tI' ' r4""4-1-E- lt 0 1” 0 r that the reason "hard work" while Americans say it's '''i ll k) succeed in school Asians maintain "talent" 1 i- I'M° - I arenb were asked why their children 11 I In college k - BUTTERFIELD -- 1 OF KM CHI MINH AT CORNELL UNIVERSM' BY ANN WAWA PAGE 11111kIER' semester - e1 Asian-America- 1mmooloninnmeinrmo - -- t' - 2Z on campus at the University of California at Betteley (I) and with her parents Peter and Shoe Hue at home in Millbrae Calif 4 JANUARY 21 1990 PARADE MAGAZINE |
