Kingston

I'm from Cambodia. I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. My mom and dad and my five siblings, we came here to America sponsored by a church. We ended up going to a Christian school and building our life in America in Philadelphia. I was actually raised in West Philadelphia. I grew up in a multi-cultural neighborhood so I'm a very diverse-minded kind of person now—it made me who I am. The reason why I'm here at the College is because I'm 33. When I turned 30 years old, I decided to come to college because I wanted to change my path to better my life. I decided to study social work here. The reason why is because last year I went through cancer—I had two different cancers. Today is my one-year anniversary, so I'm celebrating today! I'm still cancer-free as of today. Now, I just want to be an advocate not just for cancer-patients—just for any individual that's fighting for equal rights. I'm part of the LGBTQ community. I think that our voices need to be heard a lot more at the College. We're so quiet and disclosed here at the College where a lot of people should come out and enjoy being themselves and knowing who they are, and being comfortable in this environment. That's another path I'm going to take being a social worker.

Editor's Note: Kingston will be graduating May 2018 and will be transferring to West Chester University. He's the first person in his family to go to college!