Penn guard has come a long way from Sudan to Ivy League

RAGE WELLED UP in young Dau Jok when he was told what happened: The Gok Dinka paramount chief Jok Dau Kachuol - his grandfather - had been slain in crossfire during yet another eruption of violence in Southern Sudan. It happened just under a year ago. Dau was living in Des Moines, Iowa, where he and what remained of his family had settled in 2003, and where he had emerged as a very fine high school basketball player. Given that he was also an "A'' student, he had become enchanted with the possibility of attending Penn, where he could not only play college ball but also fulfill his ambitions academically.

But he began to waver as he absorbed the news of his grandfather, with whom Dau had become especially close since the bloody death of his father, Dut Jok. Dau had only been 6 years old when that happened. Dut had been a general in the Sudan People's Liberation Army and a beloved figured. Dau remembered that his father would "send bags of wheat, corn, sugar cane and soy beans to those in need." Upon seeing the lifeless body of his father - who had been shot in the head during an encounter with the Arab opposition - Dau became so angry that he picked up an AK-47 with the intention of seeking revenge. But that would be a job ultimately undertaken by older members of his tribe, whom Dau says "hunted down and killed 200 to 300 Arabs" in retaliation.

Some of the same feelings overcame him as he sat there 7,000 miles away in Des Moines and pondered the death of his grandfather. For an hour, he remembers that he could not move, that he just "sat frozen in the same position." Inside, he was churning with fury, possessed by the urge to do something to avenge what had happened. The small boy in him, who still was grieving the loss of his father, wanted to fly back home and take up arms. He told himself: "Someone has to be accountable!" But he knew that would be forbidden by his family, so he came up with a Plan B. Instead of attending Penn, he would go instead to the United States Military Academy.

"West Point had recruited me, so my first instinct was to call their coach," says Dau. "I just wanted to join the Army [and] learn the skills and go kill people. What hurt most was the fact that another human being took his life and I could not do anything about it."

But that was the boy in Dau speaking.

The man in him knows that he could do more for his people with his brains than with bullets.