But I wanted to be here. I wanted to get an education. Bruce Pao Choua Yang knows all too well about the pursuit of opportunity and the sacrifices and successes that come with it. In the late 1970s, before he could even read and write, Yang's family fled war-torn Laos. Yang's father carried him on his back and his mother carried an older brother as they headed for a river that would take them to a new life in Thailand.
Shots rang out before they reached the river.
Yang's mother and brother were killed, his father was seriously wounded. Yang and his father were able to make it to Thailand. Eventually, Yang's father remarried and the family moved to the United States with the help of a church sponsorship, and later to Pella. America provided Yang his first opportunity at a better life. The Hixson program provided him with a second.