MC's valedictorian is face of a changed Cambodia

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Correction appended.

Kismy Tor graduated from Manhattan College Sunday with a degree in mathematics and a minor in computer science. That’s remarkable enough on its own, when you learn that Tor, 23, grew up in a small town in Cambodia called Siem Reap. It’s even more remarkable that Tor gave the valedictorian address.

Perhaps even most remarkable is Ms. Tor’s goal: to become one of only a handful of people in Cambodia with doctoral degrees in mathematics. 

“I have always loved mathematics and I knew for sure that I want to be a mathematician probably around my junior year,” said Ms. Tor. 

She is on track to earn that Ph.D. In September, she will start a master’s program in mathematics at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. 

“The courses will be in French, but I took this as a challenge to learn another language well,” Ms. Tor said. “A well known mathematician, David Hilbert, once said, ‘Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.’”

After finishing high school but before coming to Manhattan College in fall 2011, Ms. Tor studied at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. There she met Dr. Helene Tyler, an associate professor of mathematics at Manhattan College, who was volunteer-teaching a upper-division math course. Dr. Tyler said she quickly realized that Ms. Tor was special.

“Her mathematical talent was clear,” she recalled, saying that Ms. Tor, the youngest student by at least four years, came in sixth in the class. “But it was more than that. She understood my jokes and started making jokes of her own. That’s hard in another language.”

Dr. Tyler knew that if Ms. Tor stayed in Cambodia, “there’s no way she could get the education she deserved there.” So the educator encouraged Ms. Tor to apply to Manhattan College, which accepted her.

Kismy Tor, Cambodia, Manhattan College, Dr. Helene Tyler, Isabel Angell
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