In its inaugural “Class Acts Awards”, the Daily News (June 22) of New York City honored Chime Dolma as one of the five students, who have gone beyond the ordinary to achieve success and become “an inspiration to all of us”. Chime arrived in the United States two years ago, having escaped from Tibet in 2000.
Following is Chime’s story, as reproduced from the Daily News:
JUNE 22, 2005—Seventeen-year-old Chime Dolma is making up for lost time.
The Brooklyn high school freshman couldn’t read or write—and had never been to school—until she was smuggled out of China when she was 13.
But since arriving in Brooklyn two years ago at 15, she has become a star student, even though she didn’t speak a word of English when she showed up.
Thanks to her love of reading and self-motivation, she is one of the top students at the International High School @ Prospect Heights.
“How many times can I say `motivated’ in the same sentence to describe her?” said social studies teacher Monika Watanabe, Chime’s mentor.
“She has that engine inside of her that is constantly on the go.”
Chime regularly stays after school, reading, talking with her teachers and meticulously completing homework.
Chime also has blossomed into a student leader. She tutors other immigrant students who, like her, are late readers. In the spring, she was one of the 15 students chosen for the rigorous Asian American Student Advocacy Project. She studied issues facing Asian students and lobbied for more services for immigrant children.
“I’ve become a completely different person since I came to this school,” Chime said, flashing a broad smile.
Her accomplishments are all the sweeter given her arduous path. Growing up in Tibet, she and her twin sister, Adon Adon, lived with their father, Tenpa Tenpa, and an aunt after their mother died in childbirth.
Tenpa, a political activist, didn’t want his daughters to attend school in China for fear they would lose their Tibetan identity. The sisters spent days tending herds of sheep, yaks and horses near a nomadic settlement.
In 2000, the girls awoke one day to find their peaceful lives shattered. The girls learned that their father had fled the country to avoid arrest.
Weeks later, Chime’s father arranged for the girls to be smuggled to rural India. “We had to go by ourselves,” said Chime, her eyes spilling over with tears at the memory of the perilous nighttime journey. “There was nobody to take care of us.”
Two more years passed before their father was able to arrange for them to join him in New York.
Chime and her sister had never seen a plane before boarding the jet bound for the United States.
“It was so different,” Chime said. “In my country we don’t use any electricity.”
Chime hopes to become a doctor, perhaps an obstetrician, so that she can help women like her late mother. She also dreams of opening a clinic in Tibet.
