When was loung ung born
She is now the National Spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World and shares her messages of civic service, activism, and leadership across the world. When not working and traveling, Ung enjoys eating fried crickets, drinking margaritas, and riding around her neighborhood on her tandem bike with friends.
As a survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields, Loung takes her audience into a world of unspeakable suffering, heartbreaking loss, and unimaginable hardship.
Yet, it is not these things that remain with you after you have heard her speak. What stays with you is Loung's voice. A voice of strength, kindness, and most of all, of incandescent hope.
A voice that boldly empowers us to put down whatever hardship we might have endured and forge ahead to create the world we all would like to see. Ung has the compassion and spirit necessary to connect with audiences that might otherwise be overwhelmed by the menace and malice of history. Her story, as tragic as it might be, fills the listener with a sense of hope, direction, and purpose. Whereas her subject matter is as difficult and challenging as it gets, Loung Ung's presence is a straightforward testimony of human strength and the possibility of good rising from evil.
Her presentation was truly inspirational, and it is admirable that she was able to reflect on such traumatic experiences in her own past in a way that effectively reached out to others from more safe and comfortable backgrounds. The slightest suggestion of preaching or guilt tripping and the effect would be lost but her able and disarming use of humor took the audience with her, no doubt surprised to find themselves sharing laughter along the way.
Loung Ung's life-affirming energy represents a triumph of the human spirit over adversity. She delivered a powerful, moving and yet very human story. People watched in total rapt attention, many with tears in their eyes. To this day many still talk about the event and the impact she made. Loung is not just an inspiring and powerful speaker; she also comes across as so totally genuine.
She manages to mix emotion, and a compelling story with great enthusiasm. Her infectious charm and sense of fun is so much part of the experience. Once you have heard Loung speak, you are captivated, drawn in and left feeling good and wanting to do something positive with your life. But she survived, eventually making her way to Vermont.
She recently returned to her alma mater to speak with students as part of Essex High School's Global Leadership Program. Ung's memoirs have become international best-sellers, and on Friday, May 18, she returned to Essex High School to speak with students in the school's new Global Leadership Program.
The nearly 80 students had read her first book, First They Killed My Father , watched the film adaptation of the same name and researched the dark period in Cambodian history. Vermont Edition was invited to interview the Cambodian-American author during her visit to the school, where Ung discussed how she channeled her guilt from surviving the Khmer Rouge into her writing and activism, and talked about what she wishes she had known when she was a student at Essex High.
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