A Korean American high school student who used to live on his own is now headed to Harvard.
Chan Kang, 20, is a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station, Long Island, N.Y. His parents divorced when he was young, and his father brought him to the United States from South Korea when he was 17. Soon after, however, his father abandoned him and left him to fend for himself.
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“I actually wasn’t surprised,” Kang told NBC New York. “My parents got divorced when I was little and the reason was that my father was being abusive.”
Kang was left in the care of relatives but after they moved away he was left completely alone. He would bounce from place to place, living with family friends or renting a room here and there.
“I was really afraid for my future,” he told the Korea Daily. “But I tried and pledged that I didn’t have to be afraid, I’ll do what I need to do.”
His friends and neighbors helped him after they heard about his situation. He was lucky in that the family of a fellow classmate took him in. Kang found a “village of support” at Walt Whitman High, NBC reported. Friends helped him get new eyeglasses and repair his bike, his only means of transportation.
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Kang, talented in music such as piano, participated in the schoolmusic band and is well liked by his peers. Now he is a naturalized American citizen and set to graduate this month with honors. Then it’s off to Harvard on a scholarship, where he wants to study music and math.
