Sophea: the first in her family to reach university
From a rice field in Kampong Thom to a scholarship in Phnom Penh — one student's determined journey.
Sophea remembers studying by the light of a borrowed phone, long after her younger siblings had fallen asleep. This year, she became the first person in her family to enrol at university.
Growing up in a farming family in Kampong Thom, Sophea's path to higher education was never assumed. Money was tight, and the nearest upper-secondary school was an hour's ride away. When a KAPE scholarship arrived in grade nine, it changed what felt possible.
A turning point
The scholarship covered her supplies and a bicycle, but Sophea credits her mentor for the harder, quieter support — the encouragement to keep going when staying home would have been easier. "She believed I could do it before I believed it myself," Sophea says.
I want to come back as a teacher. I want to be for other children what my mentor was for me.
Now studying education at a university in Phnom Penh, Sophea plans to return to her home province to teach. Her younger sister, watching closely, has already declared she will be next.