I met Pan Young a couple of years ago, she helped me train Zinnia for therapy work at Bishop Maginn High School. But until this week, I did not get to know her well. Sue Silverstein, her teacher, and mentor at Bishop Maginn High School urged me to meet her.

She is, in fact, an amazing story, a refugee child shunted from country to country, from refugee camp to refugee camp, her family ravaged and scattered by a horrible genocide, shuned mostly in hostile countries, until the United Nations got her to America in July of 2014, before the gates slammed shut.

“I am grateful to talk about what is happening in my country,” she told me. “Democracy is dying there, people are being shot down in the streets. I want to speak about this. My mother has been shattered by the violence there, we can speak with our family, everyone is terrified of the military.”

Pan works several jobs, takes care of her mother, and has just been granted a full Presidential Scholarship to attend Sage University’s Albany branch, where she will study pre-med biology.

It is amazing how many times I’ve seen the teachers at this school take in the most troubled and bewildered children, give them a safe place to learn, teach them English and math and history, encourage their art, and steer them to good schools, so very often on scholarship.

The teachers have specialized in helping their students figure out what college they want to go to and get there.

Pan hopes to become a “proud American citizen” sometime this summer. She also hopes to spread the word about the atrocities in Myanmar.

At Bishop Maginn, every refugee child who wants to go to college – and that is all of them – goes. They go on to be successful and conscientious citizens.

Pan is one of the most extraordinary  When she came to school, she could barely speak English. Now, she is an honors student.

She was happy to talk to me, she thought I would be willing to talk to her about the horrors in Myanmar and how they affect the refugee children from that country.

Pan is articulate, passionate, and very clearly, intelligent.

“Pan is exceptional,” says Sue Silverstein, “life has thrown many obstacles in her path. More obstacles than any young girl should have to endure. She never gives up, she finds a way. She is an exceptional student, an exceptional daughter, an exceptional friend, an exceptional member of her community, and basically an exceptional human being. I am so proud of all she has accomplished and know that she will change the world.”

Sue isn’t exaggerating. She and the other refugees from that region have seen a lifetime of horror, fear and depravation. I didn’t hear one self-pitying or complaining word come out of her mouth.

Pan and I sat down for a long time together last Friday. She was eager to meet with me to talk about the tragedy unfolding after the Myanmar military coup.

Her mother is very disturbed by the violence there.

She fell into a deep depression when the military overthrew the elected government in March. She had offers from a number of colleges, but she chose to stay in Albany so she could take care of her mother. “I would never leave her behind,” she said.

Nearly 800 citizens of Myanmar, many children, and all civilians have been gunned down by soldiers in full daylight as they protest.

Pan’s grandfather was killed in the first genocide against the Karen people, her family fled Myanmar for some years.  Her father was separated from the family for six years.

The marriage did not survive the genocide,  and Pan’s mother was crushed by the violence and the danger to her family and cousins, many of whom have fled the cities to the country, where they are in hiding and searching for food.

Pan’s family initially fled to Malaysia, where she was forbidden to attend the schools there and where Myanmar refugees were persecuted and arrested if they tried to work.

Her mother is desperate to hear from her family, but they are all hiding in the forests outside of the cities.

“I’m grateful to be here in the United States,”  said Pan “where I hope to become a proud American citizen,” she said, “but I want to do everything I can do to alert people to the horrors in Myanmar.”

Pan is confident, poised, she has learned to be honest and direct.

She speaks almost flawless English and the one word teachers and students use about her is “confident.” Sue is right, as usual, Pan will go places.

She knows what she wants to say and where she wants to go. I have no doubt she will get there.

Her mother is so upset, Pam said, that she gave her a handwritten letter in Burmese to give to me,  written in longhand in Burmese about the families being arrested, persecuted. She is so eager to get the word out.

Pan said coming to the United States was difficult, “I didn’t like pizza,” she said, “and all the other children liked Pizza. I understood nothing about what was going on.”

She also worked hard to learn English.

“I couldn’t follow anything,” she said, “and the classes were so big.”

Her life improved dramatically, she said, when she got to Bishop Maginn four years ago.

“The teachers were so different here, and so are the students. They encouraged me, taught me, helped me.” She learned English quickly, made friends, and threw herself into class and homework.

“I love this school,” she said, almost tearing up. “I will miss it everyday. The people care about you here.”

Pan had a mission in our interview, she wanted me to understand how bad things were in her original country.  I promised to pass along the message. “The country is not right,” she said. “We need to have freedom and this is now how freedom should be.”

I’ve met some amazing refugee children at Bishop Maginn, Pan is one of the most impressive.

She isn’t seeking any funds, she wants to take care of things herself if she can. She did tell me she looked on my blog and admired my photography.

I asked if she would like a beginner’s digital camera. She lit up. It’s on the way.