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May 21, 2010
Education against all odds
KDHS’s gala celebration highlights courage and triumph.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Imagine being 15 years old, and being so sure of your goals that you move to the other side of the world with someone you’ve only just met – all with the belief that you will change your and your family’s life for the better.
That’s only the beginning of Anya Romanet’s inspiring story, which she will share at King David High School’s upcoming Teaching for Tomorrow gala at the River Rock Resort in Richmond. Romanet will be joined by Tererai Trent, another woman who beat the odds to receive a world-class education, as the theme of the evening is “Education Against All Odds: Tales of Triumph.”
The night also will celebrate a student project highlighting this theme. According to the KDHS website, “When J.J. Keki, a leader of the Abayudaya [Ugandan Jews], came to visit us earlier this year, it was evident, from the stories and pictures he shared with our students and families, that his people are experiencing a great hunger for a fuller and richer Jewish life. Our students were moved by his message and the story of this dedicated community of fellow Jews.”
The KDHS student-led Abayudaya Committee called upon each student to raise funds, as just $100 provides an Abayudayan child with tuition for a full year of education and food. At the May 30 gala, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, Keki’s brother and a religious leader of the Abayudaya, will represent his community.
Trent, who is originally from northern Zimbabwe, will recount how she has come to receive her PhD from Western Michigan University and is now working with Heifer International, based in Little Rock, Ark. Her story has been widely publicized, being featured in the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and Sheryl WuDunn, as well as on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Heifer International’s mission is to end hunger, with the “idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief.” Established in 1994, some 8.5 million people in 128 countries have received such aid from Heifer. On its website, there is an interview with Trent, in which she shares how Heifer changed her life: “Coming from a very poor village, poverty means carrying the burden of life without the means,” she said. “It means not being able to control one’s life. It means being demeaned. It means losing dignity.”
Trent was spared such a fate when the president of Heifer, Jo Luck, visited her village in 1991, sat among the women there and told them that their dream of becoming educated was achievable. After writing down her dreams – getting a BA, MA and PhD – on a piece of paper and burying them in an old tin box, Trent began raising the money needed to achieve them.
The many hardships Trent faced when she finally reached the United States are recounted by Kristof in two November 2009 articles in the New York Times. According to Kristof, Trent worked for Heifer and several Christian organizations, while taking correspondence courses. In 1998, she was accepted to Oklahoma State University, and brought her five children with her, not wanting to leave them with her abusive husband. He came with the family, however, but eventually was deported back to Zimbabwe for beating her. Meanwhile, she earned her BA and started on her MA. When her husband returned to the United States, he was dying from AIDS and, despite their fraught history, Trent looked after him until he died. Her PhD dissertation was on AIDS prevention in Africa, and she hopes to return to that continent with her husband, Mark Trent, whom she met at Oklahoma State University.
Romanet, who was born in Chisinau, Moldova, has just graduated from Connecticut College with a bachelor’s in economics and international relations. At college, Romanet, now 23, worked as a media services assistant and was chair of the Slavic studies student advisory board, among several other things. She was brought to the United States by Alina Spaulding of United Jewish Communities in Greensboro, N.C.
“I was only 15, when, on a sunny day in July of 2002, I met Alina Gerlovin Spaulding, who at that time was the dean of admissions at the American Hebrew Academy,” explained Romanet. “After speaking with Alina for a few hours, I knew that I was presented with a unique opportunity, not only to pursue an excellent education in the United States, but also to change my life and my family’s life in its entirety. Since a very young age, I was a very driven and ambitious girl, who strongly believed in the power of ‘vision.’ I had a vision of pursuing an excellent education in America, so that one day I could give back to my people half way around the world.
“When I heard back from the AHA that I was accepted to the academy, I was so excited and overwhelmed that little did I understand what it meant at the age of 15 to embark on a new journey of ‘adulthood.’ But my parents had a very clear idea of what I was about to experience. Nevertheless, they only supported and encouraged my decision to pursue my dream. It is interesting because my dad also left his family at a very young age to pursue his dream of becoming a wrestler. He would always talk about being so happy that my sister and I would never have to experience what it is like to live far away from our family and fight every day for your dreams. When I told my dad about my dream of studying in America though, I never heard the word ‘no.’”
Spaulding spoke at the inaugural Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver Choices event about her experience immigrating to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a child with her family, and how much the world Jewish community helped her. (See “Life choices celebrated.”) At that talk, Spaulding explained that she had “two ‘children,’ teenaged sisters from Moldova whose parents wanted them to have a brighter future.” She said the older girl came to live with her first, the younger arriving later. When first considering whether to help this family, Spaulding said she phoned her husband: “His response was, ‘What the Jewish community has done for you, we will do for this child.’”
“My sister, Sasha, is a brave and caring individual,” said Romanet. “Even after she saw the continuous obstacles I had to overcome, she battled her fears and also chose to come to America and pursue her own dreams at age 14. She has always faced the challenges with a positive attitude. Today, she is 20 and a rising junior at Ithaca College in upstate New York. She is pursuing an undergraduate degree in business administration, concentrating in corporate accounting and finance. Besides being passionate about a career in a high-paced business environment, she does not forget about giving back to the community. Sasha volunteers as a peer career advisor at Ithaca College and at the local Red Cross branch in Ithaca, N.Y.”
About adapting to life in the United States, Romanet said, “I think one of the biggest challenges was to reconcile with the idea that, at the time when I was receiving a premier education in one of the best boarding schools in America, my family continued to face the ugly reality of the post-communist, dilapidated country of Moldova.
“During the first few months of being in America, I remember constantly converting U.S. currency to Moldovan lei to determine how much this or that thing would cost in Moldova. I would refuse to go to the movies with my friends because I simply could not allow myself to spend 10 dollars for a movie while knowing that, for the same amount of money, we could buy a week’s worth of bread. I would always feel guilty, until at some point I realized that instead of feeling guilty, I should channel all my energy and educational credentials that I received at AHA to change this reality. Since that moment, I have been trying to give as much back to my country and people as I can and I hope that A Mother’s Smile Project is just a stepping point for many more humanitarian projects to come.”
Romanet organized A Mother’s Smile while at AHA, with the goal of raising $65,000 to bring heat and hot water to a maternity hospital in northern Moldova. The project was completed in the summer of 2009.
As for the future, Romanet starts a job in September as a consultant with FactSet Research Systems, Inc., a provider of financial data and analyses, based in Connecticut. But first, she will participate in Teaching for Tomorrow, which starts at 7 p.m. on May 30. For details, visit kdhs.org or contact the school at 604-263-9700 or [email protected].
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