Profile of Counselor Theary Tiep

Article compilation by M&M staffers/ Photos by Gunner Strietzel and Ellie Solomon

Imagine fleeing your country at only 10 months old so you could live to see another day. Imagine several of your family members dying on the way out. Imagine your grandfather giving you sleeping pills so you wouldn’t cry and alert the guards of the concentration camp you were forced to live in.

Theary Tiep’s family was one of the millions forced out of their house in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh and forced to live in rural work camps. If they had refused they would have been killed.

“Basically, they knocked on the door and said ‘You have one hour to evacuate. Take what you can carry,’” said Tiep. “My mom packed rice and food because she didn’t know if they’d be coming back.”

Born in Cambodia, August 19th, 1979, Tiep’s family was one of the ones affected by the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, which enforced a policy of massive genocide claiming the lives of more than 2 million Cambodians. They had to sneak out of the country at night, losing family members as they went, and carrying her uncle, who couldn’t walk due to cerebral palsy, on a stretcher.

“I’m very fortunate, I’m very lucky to be alive here. It’s funny because I always tell myself: Everyone has good days, and sometimes you have really bad days, but I always put that into perspective. I could never really have a bad day, because I have a day.”

When her family finally escaped Cambodia they moved to the United States. Tiep grew up in Long Beach, Calif. where her parents opened up a sandwich shop.

Tiep became a U.S. citizen when she was 14, and although she grew up in a bad neighborhood, she believes that it helped shape the person that she is today.

“I grew up in a pretty rough area,” Tiep said.

In her neighborhood they had several race riots through different gangs. Her high school was pretty scary, too.

"In my junior year the National Guard had to come on campus with full gear; there were helicopters everywhere," Tiep said. "We were just a stone's throw away from Compton. Sometimes sports teams would forfeit because they didn’t want to come and play at our school,” Tiep said.

Tiep had a lot of after school activities. “I played tennis for four years, soccer, and did ballet.”

There was also an award winning magazine on campus that Tiep wrote for. She was very interested in journalism then. Tiep just graduated in May from the University of Southern California with a Master’s Degree in education.

While she was in college she interned for 40 hours a week at the local Elementary school and was a full-time student all at once. At USC Tiep’s class started a program called “SCOT” which stands for School Counselors of Tomorrow, and through this program Tiep found Duke TIP.

Duke TIP is a program where academically gifted students from the south-eastern part of the United States go to a college campus for three weeks and take a college course. At every campus there is a psychological counselor in case the students are having a problem and need to talk to someone.Tiep heard of this and wanted to try and get a position but forgot about the program in the midst of her busy schedule.

“Life happened,” she said. “I was like ‘Oh no! Duke TIP!’” Tiep called Duke TIP and asked if there were any positions left, and there was one. She took the counseling job at the Duke TIP site at the University of Georgia.

“I actually have the best job,” Tiep said. “I get to, kind of, have my hand in every cookie jar.”

Tiep’s job description is to hang out with the students, residential counselors (RC’s), and the staff, such as instructors, teacher’s assistants, and the administrative staff. She has to be on call every hour of the day so she gets two days off during the week instead of just one like the other staff members.

“The weirdest time I talked to somebody was two in the morning,” Tiep said, “but it’s okay because I’m a night owl anyway!”

Tiep remains optimistic even though her life has been full of difficulties. It takes a strong person to put up with everything she has and still have a huge, gleaming smile on their face. Tiep is a special kind of person who sees the glass half-full and tries to live each day to the fullest.

“Your experiences make you who you are.”

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You can follow some "tweets" from Theary's press conference with the Media and Message class on @DukeTIPDawgs on Twitter. Hashtag #Theary.