New York Councilman Robert Cornegy and Jean Alerte Award ‘Do Right, Do Good’ Scholars

Tenzin Choekyi

Tenzin Choekyi has only been in the United States for three years. A resident of Brooklyn, she attended the International High School at Prospect Heights. An empowerment school, International High addresses the needs of recent immigrant students through a rigorous curriculum that focuses on English fluency and interdisciplinary and cross cultural collaboration.

Choekyi has come a long way figuratively and literally. She remembers the winter of 2003 when she was 5 years old playing with rocks outside of her tent in the village where her nomad group lived in Tibet. Her mother suddenly ran toward her, grabbed her hand and said with the utmost urgency, “Move quick. Don’t talk.” Here began a dangerous three-month journey on foot to escape the harsh realities of life under the Chinese military. After braving harsh terrain and only traveling at night to prevent detection, her group of refugees finally arrived at their destination in north India. Soon thereafter, her mom sent her to boarding school in South India. In Tibet, children do not have the opportunity to attend school as the custom is to marry young and go off to work.

Choekyi fully understands the sacrifice and pain her mother endured to ensure that she got an education and a better life for herself. Their journey inspires her to “Work harder, think deeper and never give up.” As secretary of the National Honor Society, one of her greatest responsibilities is overseeing the tutoring center. She matches up students who need help with schoolwork with peer tutors. She recalls not too long ago as a 9th grader new not only to the school, but to the country, how much the tutoring center played a pivotal role in her academic and social life. None of the tutors spoke Tibetan and at first the only means of communication was through body language, hand signals, and drawings. Now a seasoned leader and decision maker, Choekyi wrote the following regarding her approach: “I don’t necessarily match a tutee with a tutor who speaks the same language … I don’t want tutees to rely so heavily on that shared language. They need to practice English and learn concepts in English.” She goes on to state, “I will use the skills I have developed as head of the tutoring center throughout my life, especially my ability to work with and manage different types of people effectively. More than anything, working at the tutoring center has shown me how good it feels to make a difference in someone’s life.”

In college, Choekyi looks forward to studying sociology and Chinese, with hopes to actually study abroad in China and learn more about Chinese government and culture. Ever conscious of her Tibetan roots and the continued struggles of her people, it is her aim to help improve Chinese-Tibetan relations and explore alternatives to human rights violations and poverty that can bring about social change and conflict resolution.

For more information about the Do Right, Do Good scholarships, please click here.