Local native aboard as SCI Director
Published on June 2nd, 2004
STONEHAM, MA - When Stoneham's Roger Wong came onboard as director of the Social Capital Initiative Youth Council in Woburn last year, his expectations were high. But according to him they have been more than fulfilled. But Roger came to idealism the hard way. It came as the result of some soul searching after the loss of a dear friend in the World Trade Towers 9/11 tragedy.
"My brother Ben and I were born in Hong Kong and moved with our parents to Seattle when we were infants, but my parents sent us back to Hong Kong to live with my grandparents when they realized they couldn't support us here. We lived with my grandparents and until I was eight and didn't really know my parents."
"When you're four or five you don't even think about who your real parents are. You just worry about playing, eating and going to school, and I lived with a pretty big family and I was grateful for that. But I'll always remember the first time I saw my parents at Logan Airport and everything looked big and foreign. Most people have the feeling that Asians all look the same. Well, that was the way it was for me."
"When I started third grade at the Colonial Park School in Stoneham, I didn't speak a word of English. But I think it was easier to adjust to the language because I was so young, but I think because I was so young it was easier. I even learned English at recess. Immersion works and my school did a great job getting me tutors and the teachers spending extra time with me after school, but I found that just interacting with the other students helped a lot."
"I still keep in touch with my third grade teacher, Mrs. Smith. She had a huge influence on me and I think the fact that she was my first teacher here in America she definitely had an impact. She was very warm and welcoming. I went on to Stoneham Middle School and Stoneham High School and that intensified my interaction with other students and helped me learn English faster. I even came in second in a spelling bee when I was in seventh grade."
"It didn't dawn on me until I was older that the first eight years of my life were so different from everyone else. I began to notice it when my friends would talk about what it was like growing up in Stoneham and talk about the parks they played in and about their parents. Suddenly I realized I didn't have a normal upbringing. I think that's why Mrs. Smith is my favorite teacher. She was almost like a parent figure to me when I was at school and that first year is such an adjustment. Without her help and influence, I don't know how I would have turned out."
Hong Kong
"The Hong Kong school system is so different. It's so strict. I could do division when I was three-years-old and you get hours of homework. I still remember to this day going home about 1:30 p.m. and you'd be doing homework until 7 or 8 at night. Then I come here and they're teaching me how to add and subtract and I'm thinking I did this years ago. Mrs. Smith was impressed, but I think she also understood that it was a different system and while I was good at math and learning in general, I wasn't as strong in other areas like sports and social development."
"In Hong Kong, too much emphasis was put on school, school, school and after awhile it just overwhelms you. I still have to say that a lot of the adjustment I made had to do with family and the kind of friends I made here, like my friend Joe who I've been friends with since third grade."
"I didn't feel any discrimination but I did feel that I was different, but I never felt prejudice until high school and it wasn't the kids I knew. I remember one incident when I was playing soccer in junior year. I was paired up to play defense against this other kid who was really good. I stopped him couple of times and he would run by and yell some racial slurs at me. I couldn't believe that it was happening."
"I went back to Hong Kong when I graduated from college about 2001, and it was weird. I hadn't been there since I had been eight, and I remember walking down the street feeling for the first time that I didn't stand out. I just remember walking down the street and feeling for the first time like the majority of the people and it was a new feeling."
"I graduated from Stoneham High and went to BU. My first couple of years at BU I didn't do as well as I wanted because I think it was the first time I was really free. I also think at that age I started exploring things that had always been restricted for me. But I don't' regret it. I learned so much about myself and it forced me to refocus my whole life."
"In my junior years I woke up and got back on track. I signed on for an internship at Disneyworld and it was really intensive. I'll be honest and say I felt sometimes like I was just free labor for them, 10-12 hour shifts and handling this hamburger machine that weighs 2,000 lbs. But you leave Disney with this feeling that Wow! It was a magical place."
Australia
"After that I did another internship in Sydney, Australia for this company Micros Fidelio. I got credit and worked toward a degree and got sucked into the tech bubble. I graduated from BU in 2001 and went looking for a job, but that's when 9/11 happened and one of my best friends, Lisa Frost, was on the second plane that hit the World Trade Towers. We were co-presidents of the BU hospitality program and she was flying back to California."
"I had lunch with her the week before she left and the last thing I said to her was to have some fun before you go, because she was always stressed out. She was one of the reasons I got back on track. That was a point in my life when I stopped and asked myself what am I doing?"
"I went through the whole day thinking this is horrible and I'm watching it the TV over and over again, but didn't find out about her till one of my friends called. I was in a state of shock and couldn't come to grips with the fact that I had just watched my friend die on TV. It was so unreal."
"Then when you realize you knew someone in one of the planes and you don't think about the two planes hitting the building. You think, 'That was my friend. What was she thinking when it happened or 10 seconds before? Did she know she was going to die?' It takes a toll on you."
"Then about a month later one of my leads came through for a job with a HDF, a hospitality company in Denver CO. I flew out, was interviewed and got that position. That summer was eye opening. I think that one year I looked deeply into myself. It was my first time living on my own leaving my comfort zone. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do with my life. I learned how the corporate world worked, but for me it wasn't personally rewarding. I felt what I was doing wasn't making me better as a person. That's when I started thinking about the Peace Corps and Americorps and found the Americorps Promise program working with youth, and it seemed like a good fit."
SCI in Woburn
"I've been in the program almost a year and my time working with Woburn Social Capital Initiative (SCI) will be up the middle of June. After that I've been accepted for a second year working in Boston with Boston Cares. This summer I'm going to be up to Maine for the Seeds of Peace (http://www.seedsofpeace.org/) program that promotes conflict resolution between Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. I can't wait."
"At first I didn't know what to expect in this past year working with SCI as an Americorps volunteer, but I have learned so much. Working with David Crowley is amazing as is working with youth in the community. David is visionary he knows what he's doing and I'd work with him anytime. The sky is the limit for him."
"A lot of times things don't go as planned because change is not always pretty. Anytime you break boundaries people are going to question you and you might be discouraged, but it's at those times you have to look at yourself and say 'Wow!', this is change and it's happening right now. I came into the year wanting to make a difference, but I actually got the answer during one of my projects this year."
"When the SCI Youth Council mayoral debate was in the works and we were finally sitting there with 400 kids and the counselors were on stage getting ready to do their presentation, I remember walking up and down the aisle of the Woburn High School Auditorium and hearing one of the kids say 'That's cool! We get to vote!' To me that was the answer to my question. Imagine if you could get that many kids to feel that way about voting."
"I thought at first I'd do this for awhile then go on to other things, but now that I've done this for a year I can't tell you how personally gratifying it's been and money isn't the reason. At the end of the day I feel good. I feel that even if life ended for me tomorrow, I can look back and feel I've lived a full life; been a good human being and made good decisions for myself and others. Above all I've been honest, most of all to myself."
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