I didn’t recognize the photo until I read Teacher Kathy Sosa’s message passing along Eh K’s invitation to hear her speak at the Albany Academy graduation in December.

Four years ago, Kathy, then a teacher at an Albany Middle School, invited me to her class and asked for help in getting Eh K into a private school, the Albany Academy, one of the best private schools in the Albany area.

All in all, we got eight refugee students into different private schools, and the Albany Academy accepted three.

It was a joy to meet Eh K Pru when she was an honors student at the Hackett Middle School in Albany.  I wrote about her then. Kathy Sosa was her teacher and has fought and advocated for her ever since she arrived.

She was 13 when I met her and had spent the first ten years of her life in a United Nations Refugee Camp. Kathy and I met with administrators at the prestigious Albany Academy, and she was accepted. I remember her poise and graciousness.

(Ek Pru when I met her in Middle School. That smile is very genuine.)

I make it a point not to bother or interfere in the private school lives of the students we help or write about them, but I’ve often thought about Eh K Pru; she was so impressive. She had suffered so much and has no bitterness or complaint in her. She became one of the best students in the school almost instantly.

I was honored to get her invitation.

Kathy is one of those teachers they make movies about and that kids talk about their whole lives (Sue Silverstein is another). She now works at the Albany International Center, a receiving center for refugee students who need help learning English and other subjects taught in local schools.

Kathy goes all the way.

She drives Eh K’, a refugee from the Myanmar genocide, to and from school every day, accompanying her on her to her college visits. We raised funds to pay Eh K’s tuition. The school says she has been a wonderful student and has taken advantage of every possible opportunity.

It was, as we suspected, a great match.

Ek Pru has applied to five different colleges  – Union, Siena, Trinity, Quinnipiac, Fairfield, and Sacred Heart.

Kathy has invited Maria and me to come and visit the International School; they would love us to help out there. We are very interested in seeing the school and meeting some of the students.

We are still working with Bishop Gibbons, and that won’t change.

We are bonded to Sue Silverstein for life.

But the International Academy is right up my alley, and they are eager to have Zinnia as a therapy dog as well. I’ve volunteered to help with English and writing classes, and they are eager for art and sewing help.

Of all the work we’ve done with refugee children, helping the most hard-working students get into private schools and then colleges has been the most gratifying. We have changed many lives, and I hope we can change a lot more.

I’d love to keep working with Kathy; she is, like Sue, incredibly dedicated and committed to the children she teaches. She also changes lives.

I’ll be at the Albany Academy to hear Eh K’Pru’s graduation speech. I’ll bet she’ll be happy to stand for a portrait.