In the News ... "Road for Kam family goes from Cambodia to graduation stage"

MRT Photo by Tim Fischer

• Much has changed for this family since 1979

Erin Stone, Reporter
• Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - In 1979, when she was just 13-years-old, Marlena Kam along with her five younger sisters and three brothers arrived in Midland with their mother. They were fleeing the Killing Fields of Cambodia, where more than a million Cambodians were murdered in an act of genocide by the Khmer Rouge regime during the late 1970s.

More than 50 Cambodians arrived in Midland that year, fleeing horrific violence. Most had just the clothes on their back and the memory of loved ones lost to the violence in their home country. Marlena lost her father, one sister and two brothers before she got out.

More than 35 years later, in early June, Eric Brandon Kam, Marlena’s son, stood in front of his fellow Midland High School graduates and delivered a valedictorian speech. He will attend Stanford University in the fall ...

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