Immigrant Student Pursues American Dream in Baldwin-Whitehall

" … Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Those words from "The New Colossus," a sonnet written by Emma Lazarus and etched into a plaque that has lived at the Statue of Liberty site for more than 100 years, are oft forgotten but serve as a reminder of the United States' history of immigration and opportunity.

Opportunity. That's all that Diwas Timsina ever needed.

Meet Diwas

Timsina, who turns 19 years old on Thursday—the same day that the United States turns 237—is a Bhutanese refugee who has never seen Bhutan. He was born and raised in a refugee camp in Nepal, fighting floods, fires, crowdedness, diseases and more, because his mother and father were forced out of their native country for being Hindu among a predominantly Buddhist people.

Faced with the threat of violence for nearly two decades, his parents gave up trying to return home and eventually landed in the United States to chase the American Dream—the dream that, when given an opportunity to succeed, one's aptitude and attitude can lead to a prosperous life.

Seeking Refuge

The United States offered religious freedom and a shot at great educations and careers for the Timsina children—Diwas being the oldest of three.

Under authority of The UN Refugee Agency, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration and the U.S. Department of State, the Timsinas' wish to come to America was granted in July of 2008. After two high schools over three years in Atlanta, the family resettled in the Wallace (Prospect) Park area—in the Pittsburgh suburb of Whitehall Borough—in time for Diwas' senior year of high school in the fall of 2011.

Nothing ever came easy for the Timsinas, though, even in America. Diwas' father, Tika, supported his family—including paying back a flight loan to even get to the United States—through many years of back-breaking landscaping work.

And living in Prospect Park, though certainly better than a refugee camp, was never a picnic for the family, Diwas admitted. The area is a frequent setting for local police blotter, and a small apartment there served as the Timsinas' five-person dwelling.

During the early part of his only year at Baldwin High School—Prospect Park is part of the Baldwin-Whitehall School District—Diwas pretty much kept to himself, studying hard, taking English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and trying to find the best opportunity to realize his parents' dream of success for their children in the States.

"I know the situation they have been through," Diwas said. "I know how hard it is to struggle like my family with just the one job. I know how hard the work is.

"That's why I'm doing what I can. That's why I'm looking for opportunities. If I find any, I take them—good or bad. When I see opportunities, I take them because I don't want to end up working like my father."

Opportunity Knocks

Nearly midway through his senior year, opportunity knocked for Diwas.

At the door was Amanda Laichak, the director of education for Junior Achievement (JA) of Western Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that provides elementary and secondary students with skills in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship.

Laichak was looking for 25 high school students to take part in an AT&T/Junior Achievement Worldwide Job Shadow Initiative in December 2011, and because of her passion for working with refugee and immigrant families—she's a former ESL teacher—Laichak approached Baldwin High School.

"(The Baldwin-Whitehall School District) has the highest percentage of ESL students and the highest percentage of refugees in the Pittsburgh area," she explained. "It's dense with refugees and immigrants, so Baldwin faces its own challenges with serving the refugee and immigrant youth. When we bring opportunities to them (Baldwin-Whitehall school officials), they jump at the opportunities."

Baldwin-Whitehall's participation landed Diwas in the Job Shadow program, which he chose to take part in with other high-level ESL students from Baldwin High, and as luck would have it, he drew the attention of Laichak while at the 2011 event.

Diwas was eating by himself during a lunch break, and the two struck up a conversation while Laichak searched for a seat.

"I just happened to be the JA staff member that went that day," Laichak recalled fondly. "We just start talking, and within minutes, I realize he's not your normal, typical refugee. He's extremely bright, extremely motivated, and he had—for somebody his age—amazing knowledge of the refugee resettlement process, which is so political and so complex.

"Most adult refugees don't understand the process. They just know that 'somebody's gonna bring them to America.' He explained it to me, and I knew he was right because I worked in the field for 10 years.

"All of the other kids (eating lunch) were just acting like kids, but he knocked my socks off. I knew that he was special."

Realizing the Dream

Just a couple of days after meeting Diwas, Laichak was asked by AT&T officials to recommend a student who represented "the best of the best" Job Shadow Initiative pupils. And Laichak chose Diwas, naturally, as one of just six students from around the country to attend AT&T's grand Job Shadow celebration in Texas that coming spring semester.

Laichak, with then-Baldwin High Principal Kevin O'Toole, broke the news to Diwas and his father.

"I saw the look on his dad's face after I explained what was about to happen," Laichak said, "that they were going to get flown—all-expenses paid—and that Diwas was going to get to interview with the CEO of AT&T Mobility—he's a Cuban refugee—Ralph de la Vega. He was going to be nationally televised with this conference.

"As I'm explaining this to his dad, the dad said, 'This is why we brought our kids to America. This is why we're here. For me and my wife, we're coming to America, and we're going to work. But for my kids, this is what it is all about.'"

Seeing his father's reaction was especially satisfying for Diwas.

"Looking at the refugee camp and now," Diwas said, "he knew that I would have no future at the refugee camp. He decided to come here. He knows how America works and the opportunities here but that you need to try.

"I can tell that he's really proud of me. He realized that I would never get into the local newspaper, fly to Texas, meet a CEO (at the refugee camp). He's blown away with what I have done. He's proud of me and happy and now believes that I will be somebody with a better future than he. He's happy that my life will be better than his."

But the story doesn't end there.

Not only has Diwas been awarded a $1,000 scholarship from JA—he just finished his freshman year as a computer science major at Penn State University-Greater Allegheny—but he's also working in his field already as a paid database intern for JA.

He also guest-taught some third-graders this past spring at Baldwin-Whitehall's W.R. Paynter Elementary School, where his sister is enrolled. And he has made connections with members of the JA Pittsburgh Board of Directors, including setting up a one-on-one job shadow with the head of information technology at the LANXESS Corporation, a chemicals company.

And on June 22, Diwas served as the keynote speaker at Pittsburgh's World Refugee Day Celebration at the Community College of Allegheny County's Allegheny Campus. View video of his speech in the media gallery above.

Not bad for somebody who never touched a computer until he left that refugee camp.

"Diwas will take the opportunity to take any opportunity," Laichak said, "because he knows the power of opportunity-cost. He gets that, whereas a lot of kids his age don't get that."

What's Next

Unlike most college sophomores, Diwas is already planning to support his family after graduation.

"I'm telling them (his parents), 'Just hold on for a few years,'" Diwas said. "When I'm done with college, I hope to have a better job and some money so I can start supporting them—getting them free and enjoying the rest of their years."

And the Timsinas are also on a waiting list to attain U.S. citizenship, something that Diwas said that he sorely wants. He even had this poem published recently in an arts book on the Greater Allegheny campus:

America oh America

You are different

You are free

You are filled with opportunity

You are strong

You are best

You are mine, like always

America oh America 

Up is the heaven

Down is the hell

I stand in the middle

Where am I?

Where is Diwas? In the land of opportunity—and making the best of it.