NEWS

Local angles: Durham, Gastonia, Kings Mountain

‘Cultural accident with positive consequences’
determined to fight for the world’s underdogs

By L.J. TOLER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – While his University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill classmates attend commencement in shimmering blue robes Sunday (May 9), David Lyndon Weber Angeles will be in Thailand.

No dressing up for this guy, on a fast track to do good in the world. Angeles, an international studies and French major from Kings Mountain, worries about the refugees, displaced from Burma to remote camps in Thailand. Now is his best shot at finishing a documentary on them – fast, between his last UNC semester and a fellowship with the Harry S. Truman Foundation.

The film, he said, will typify his life’s work: "Through projects like these, in Burma and the rest of the world, I will educate others on hidden oppressions and use my knowledge to advocate and work for developing and improving the lives of people of concern."

That term is how the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees describes millions of displaced people worldwide. Angeles met the Burmese refugees in summer 2001 during one of four summer enrichment experiences funded by his Morehead Scholarship. The full, four-year merit award brought Angeles to Carolina in 2000, after his graduation from the N.C. School of Science and Math in Durham.

That summer, Angeles took a 4-wheel-drive deep into the Thai jungles, to a military outpost, then hiked another 40 minutes to a refugee camp.

"I got to meet and interact with students my own age who had seen their parents murdered, lived alone in dense jungles for weeks and still had no other wish but to return safely to their almost-forgotten homes," Angeles wrote in his Truman application. Most refugees can’t do so "because of war, oppressive regimes and the absolute fear of death. I will advocate and fight on behalf of these people who long for home, but whose voices cannot be heard."

He planned to use his 2003 Morehead summer grant to return to Thailand and film a documentary. Then he won a Truman Scholarship, one of 76 that the foundation awarded last spring, chosen from among 635 candidates nationwide.

The scholarship, one of the most prestigious nationally for undergraduates, provides $3,000 for the senior year and $27,000 for graduate school. It also requires winners to attend leadership training in Liberty, Mo., the summer after they win the award.

Angeles figured out how to fit everything in, attending the required training for a week in Liberty, Mo. He got the Truman Foundation’s permission to defer graduate school, then headed to Southeast Asia. Working there last summer for the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, he began his documentary.

Now, he’s finishing it right after exams at the National University of Singapore. He studied abroad there during the past semester, taking courses on Southeast Asia and its languages. By late May, he’s due in Washington, D.C.

"I was accepted for a yearlong position as the Truman Fellow at the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation" he wrote in an e-mail from Bangkok. Somewhere in his future is graduate school. Angeles’ ideal would be earning a dual master’s degree in international relations and business administration. His ultimate goal is to work in international development and diplomacy, pushing for peace.

Truman Scholars are chosen for outstanding leadership potential and communication skills, a ranking in the top quarter of their class and commitment to careers in public service. Students must have made significant public and community service contributions on and off campus.

Angeles’ contributions included serving on an advisory board for UNC’s honors program; chairing a statewide high school leadership and service development conference; singing in the Carolina Choir and an a cappella group he founded for performances at nursing homes, schools and benefits.

As co-president of the Campus Y, a student service and social justice group, Angeles started a series of lectures and films on problems around the world, aiming to revitalize the Y’s advocacy role. Besides educating audiences about issues including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the programs presented ways people could become involved in those issues.

"David was a dynamic Y president, really empowering to other students who wanted to work on social justice projects," said Virginia Carson, Y director. "The Truman Scholar program looks for change agents, and David will definitely be one. I look forward with great interest to the work he will do in his career."

Angeles was inducted into the Golden Key National Honor Society and the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC’s highest honor society.

The son of Teresa Weber of Kings Mountain and Orlando Angeles of Gastonia, Angeles calls himself "a cultural accident with positive consequences. His family, from the Philippines, was in the United States when he was born, "the third of three sons … , the youngest of 39 cousins and the ONLY American citizen." They decided to stay.

Questions of identity perplexed him as he grew up in the South. He learned numerous languages: the Filipinos’ Tagalog, English, French, Thai, Italian and Burmese. He began to observe and empathize with folks who had to struggle.

"Real injustice, about things I feel I often take for granted, make me boil: the lack of choices, education, food and security," he wrote. "Humanitarianism is for everyone. It is with this realization that I am ingrained to fight for the underdogs of the world. It is to them that I dedicate my passions."

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To download a photo of Angeles, visit:  http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/students/angeles_david.jpg

Angeles can be reached via email at angeles@email.unc.edu

Campus Y contact: Virginia Carson, 919-962-2333, Virginia_Carson@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, 919-962-8589