HHR GOP Candidate Profile: Sam Meas

Sam  Meas was born in Cambodia, Kandal Province, sometime between 1970 and 1972. As a result of the civil war and the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge that drove Cambodia back into the Stone Age, all institutions and birth and death records were destroyed. The United States Immigration and Naturalization record lists December 31, 1972, as his official date of birth, but Sam could actually be two years younger or older.

In 1983, Sam and his oldest cousin escaped the war zone along the Cambodia-Thai border and made their way to Kao I Dang refugee camp inside Thailand. After several months of living in the camp, Sam’s cousin left Sam in the camp alone, went back to Cambodia, and never returned.

For the next three years, alone in the camp, Sam relied on the generosity of other Cambodian refugee families to survive. Sam and the other families shared a common situation: they were all Cambodian (Khmers) and fellow refugees living in barb-wired and guarded camp inside Thailand. Because Sam was alone, the other families took sympathy on him, giving him money, food, and clothing. In return, Sam cooked, cleaned, sewed, babysat, carried water, chopped wood, and smuggled food and goods from Thai entrepreneurs in the villages bordering the camp. But through it all, Sam was acutely aware that he was an outsider among those families, as he was not bonded to them by blood. At one point, a young Thai military officer took Sam in, fed him, and let him watch TV; and in exchange Sam did his laundry, and shined his shoes and boots.

For the most part, Sam was as happy a teenage boy as could be expected under the circumstances. In fact, he considered himself fortunate. For a while he worked as an aid to a Thai UNHCR immigration officer, running errands, making coffee, doing research and translations. He was not starving, he was not physically or mentally abused, he had a place to lay his head at night, and he had friends.

While engaging in the vigorous daily survival activities, with a lot of luck and the grace of the Lord Buddha, Sam managed to persuade fellow Cambodians who were teaching English to take him on as a student so that that he could learn English free of charge. He also attended grammar school taught in Khmer, the language of Cambodia. As a result, Sam is now fluent in both in English and Khmer.

After three years in the camp, Sam was sponsored by Catholic Charities of Virginia and was permitted to resettle in the United States of America as an “unaccompanied minor.” Sam arrived in the United States on November 16, 1986, as a foster child of the Abbey family of Richmond, Virginia. Chris and Louise Abbey gave Sam as much as love, care, and support as they gave their own children, two boys and two girls.

Sam lived with the Abbeys for three years, but due to the difficult transition from Cambodia, the refugee camp experience, acculturalization, as well as assimilation to the American way of life, Sam decided to transfer to a group home for boys and girls in Glen Allen, about 30 miles outside of Richmond. Sam lived in the group home for a little over year before he was adopted by Susan E. Morey, a single parent and teacher, in 1992.

All during his difficult transition period, Sam pursued his education. After two years at the Albert H. Hill Middle School, he skipped the eighth grade, and in the fall of 1992 he enrolled as a high school freshman in Trinity Episcopal High School, an excellent private school in Richmond, Virginia. The many scholarships he received enabled him to complete his high-school education there.

Upon graduation from Trinity Episcopal High, Sam was accepted to Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech). He graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Finance in 1996 and moved to Boston, Massachusetts.

For nearly two years now, Sam has been a Principal with State Street Global Advisors, a division of State Street Corporation, where he oversees a team of Performance Measurement Analysts providing performance and attribution data to Active Quantitative (Developed and Emerging Markets Strategies) Portfolio Managers.

Sam married his long-time girl friend and partner, Leah Saroeun Suan-Meas, in June 2001. Sam and Leah are proud parents of two beautiful, intelligent, vibrant, and energetic girls, Monique and Sydney.

Since June 2001 Sam has volunteered his time as a member of the Board of Directors of North Suffolk Mental Health Association (NSMHA), based in Chelsea, MA. NSMHA is a private, non-profit agency, with an annual budget of about $30M, providing community-based services to children, adults, and families dealing with problems of mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse. He is presently serving as the Vice Chairman of the Board and has also served as Chairman of Finance, Personnel, By-Law, Compliance, and Audit Committees.

NOTE: Sam’s first car was an orange Ford Pinto with a bumper sticker that read, “This vehicle explodes on impact.” The car’s stereo system was the envy of any high school kid, as it had AM reception only!

http://www.sammeasforcongress.com/

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