An Sokthea is a 23 year old student at Build Bright University (BBU) in Siem Reap who has been a scholarship student for one semester.  His first year at university was spent at Angkor University, which was an hour bike ride for him every day.  He transferred to BBU because it was much closer for him to travel to on a daily basis.  He is a Tourism and Hospitality major who is in his second year at the university.  Sokthea enjoys playing sports, spending time with friends and going on the Internet in his free time.

            Sokthea’s family are rice farmers in the Svay Rieng province. He has three brothers and one sister.  Currently he stays with his aunt in Siem Reap since it is a day’s journey for him to get home.  He manages to get home once a year for the celebration of the New Year to see his family.  Two of his three brothers live in Siem Reap, his other brother lives back home and his sister is married back in his village. All of the brothers are working on their education. Sokthea is a Japanese teacher, one of his brothers teaches English, the other teaches Thai and his brother back home is working on Chinese.  It has been a challenge for Sokthea to continue his education due to his poor background, before the scholarship his parents paid for his education with his brother helping out.
 
            Sokthea is a Japanese teacher at Wat Chock for JWOC.  One of his favorite parts of the job is getting to know the students and helping them with their education.  He enjoys living in Siem Reap because of the busy tourism center it has become, giving him the opportunity to meet many new people and explore job possibilities after completing his education.  Sokthea hopes to become a tour guide one day, using his language skills at the attractions around Siem Reap.

           Sokthea strongly supports the work that JWOC is doing, especially the Village Microfinance loans used to end the cycle of poverty and the free education that is provided through the schools that JWOC supports.