Philadelphia high school student wins scholarship after parents' deaths

Heirl He has a favorite parable.

Two men ask for a woman's hand in marriage. One is rich enough to promise a life of leisure; the other can offer nothing but himself.

The woman is torn, until she asks herself a simple question: What's the fun of a life too easily led?

"That," Heirl He says, "is why she chose my dad."

Easy never did figure into the marital equation for He's mother and father. Both born in Cambodia to Chinese immigrants, they barely survived the bloody reign of the Khmer Rouge and, in the early 1980s, fled to America to build a family. With menial work, a translation dictionary, and steely resolve, Huor He and Chheng Tea managed to feed two more mouths.

But in April 2005, breast cancer claimed He's mother. In September 2006, liver cancer took her father.

What they left their daughter, then 13, was a lesson about making the most of a life that wasn't easy. She did - and this month won a four-year, full-ride grant from the Leonore Annenberg College Scholarship Fund.

Poise, passion, and a grade-point average that honors courses boosted past 4.0 were some, but only some, of the reasons why arbiters of the Annenberg Fund chose He, now 17 and soon to be a Central High School senior, as one of five national recipients.

The scholarship, named for the philanthropist who established it a year before her death in 2009, is offered to young people with potential to lead their generation.

"Good grades and standardized tests are the basic," said Gail Levin, director of the scholarship program. "After that, we're looking for the intangibles."

Those Heirl He has.

As her parents' health failed, she turned the dual tragedies into an undying pledge: that she would work tirelessly in school in their honor.

"I was an orphan," she said, voice catching, "but it did motivate me to a great extent."

Fred Kowit, her counselor at Central, noticed not only her academic zeal but the uncommon strength that sprang from the hardships in her young life. Kowit knew he had a worthy candidate for an Annenberg scholarship.

"Her character uplifts me," the counselor said.

At the start of He's junior year, Kowit nominated her through Philadelphia Futures, a mentoring and guidance program for low-income students and Annenberg's partner in selecting finalists from the city. She is the third Philadelphia recipient in the program's three years.

"They came to give their children the opportunities they didn't have," brother Khong, now 22, said of their parents. "This is exactly what they wanted to see."