UTA alumnus speaks about his life as a Cambodian refugee

Alumnus Saroeurn “Sonny” Soeun talks about his life as a Cambodian living in Texas. Soeun will speak as part of Asian Heritage Month on Wednesday at the Universtiy Center Rio Grande Ballroom. (The Shorthorn: Laura Sliva)

The SHORTHORN

Written by Anna Katzkova
Monday, 03 November 2008

In a quiet Arlington neighborhood, in a two-bedroom house with a small green yard, sits a man watching football on a big-screen TV.

Saroeurn “Sunny” Soeun’s home does not reveal anything about his Cambodian refugee background, but the scars left from sickness, his escape and his 20-year maturing path, do. He shares those memories in his book Scars of a Lifetime, which he will discuss at noon Wednesday in the University Center Rio Grande Ballroom.

Soeun, who earned a history degree at UTA, originally wrote his story to share with his daughters, 4-year-old Jocelyn and 2-year-old Madelyn. When his wife, Marissa, was pregnant with Madelyn, he spent nights he couldn’t sleep writing.

“I wrote it but not to be a book,” he said. “I’m one of those guys who thinks the worst is always going to happen, and if I die, my kids won’t know who I was and what I went through.”

Soeun’s wife urged him to publish the book.

“He was very scared,” she said. “He did not want to publish it. It was something to do, a new accomplishment.”

Born in Oddar Meancheay, a Cambodian province, Soeun lived through the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. The party eliminated free markets, enslaved people, enforced free labor and executed more than 1.5 million people.

As a child, Soeun got sick often, once being near death, but traditional medicine and God’s grace saved him, he said.

“When I was growing up, they really withheld a lot of medication,” he said. “In our culture, we have a lot of remedies — alternative medication — and they had to burn me.”

He sustained more than 30 scars from the burn. Later, a missionary doctor brought his aunt’s family to America. There, his aunt asked the doctor to help Soeun’s family.

So after a frightful escape through the Cambodian jungle, his family made it to Thailand, and later America. Soeun’s family arrived in Texas in 1981 and settled in an Abilene duplex.

After 15 years, Soeun attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he met his wife and discovered his love for helping abused adolescents. Now Soeun teaches world geography and economics at Nimitz High School in Irving.

“One of the biggest joys in the world is that I get to mold young men or women and really inspire them,” he said. “It’s a lower socioeconomic school, and I can relate to that.”

Soeun teaches about diversity and interaction and helps his students explore their potential. He advises them about their goals and problems.

“You can’t use that as an excuse to not try anything, to not have a goal and not be successful,” he said.

Seoun has left an impression on his students and his friends. His college roommate Bruce Buchannan said he was always impressed with Seoun’s internal strength and experience.

“I’ve known him for several years, but there’s always something new,” he said. “He seems like somebody that’s going to accomplish anything.”

Seoun said he wants to visit Cambodia after the country becomes safer and his girls grow up.

“As Cambodia is part of my culture, America is also,“ he said. “It has given me the opportunity to live and to raise a family.”