By Dr. Sovathana Sokhom
The University of Cambodia is pleased to welcome Dr.Sovathana Sokhom to the UC family. Dr. Sokhom will be serving as a Vice President for Academic Affairs. Her main roles are to promote academic excellence according to UC’s vision, maintain curriculum vitality, UC’s mission to “provide quality education for students to develop critical, analytical, and creative thinking so they can make well-founded and ethical decisions and be part of an informed citizenry.”
Dr. Sovathana Sokhom comes with a strong background committed to education. She received her MBA in International Trade from Texas A & M International University, Texas; and an MA in International Political Economy and a Ph.D in the fi eld of Political Science and Economics from Claremont Graduate University, California.
Dr. Sokhom has broad experience working with national and international organizations such as United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Asian Development Bank (ADB), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Canada’s International Development Agency (CIDA). She was an advisor to the Secretary General of National Assembly of the Kingdom of Cambodia from 1996-2000. She has also a strong background in teaching at the university level: she was a lecturer in International Business, Marketing and Management at the Faculty of Business in Phnom Penh from 1994-1996; a lecturer at Long Beach City College, Long Beach, in International Business; a lecturer at Marymount College, Palos Verdes, fall 2007 and 2008 in International Relation, as well as Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, from 2009 to 2012 in Micro and Macro Economics. In 2012, she received an award of “Cura Personalis” in recognition of her efforts to promote “the education of the whole person.” In summer 2011, Dr. Sokhom assisted a Global Exchange students group from LMU to help promote peace and development in Cambodia.
Dr. Sokhom is well tied to Cambodian history. She was a child laborer during the Khmer Rouge period and a refugee in the early 1980s in Thailand and Indonesia. She neither had schooling during the KR regime nor in refugee camps, but when she got the chance to study in the United States, she studied hard in non-native English, until she obtained her Ph.D. She said, “I believe in education, the rights to education and a commitment to lifelong learning because it takes a person a way from ignorance and gives the person capacity to understand who one is and what one is capable of.” She added that human beings are full of potential, and it needs the right cultivation – an education is the tool to cultivate oneself.
Dr. Sokhom comes to UC with a strong Western education, and a belief in democratic principles and values and the respect for human rights. Dr. Sokhom would like to dedicate her time and commitment to University of Cambodia to help develop the right curricula and promote academics excellence congruent with the UC’s core mission.
She believes that UC is the best place to cultivate human potential through right learning, right development, and right commitment of UC’s faculty through a well designed curriculum to students’ learning. She also believes that young Cambodians are the backbone of the community to build the Kingdom of Cambodia.
“Young Cambodians need to prepare themselves to compete with the nations in the region and world. The youth, their mind is like a sponge that could easily absorb all the water in its path...to build a nation is not a small task, but with the concerted efforts of the systems of the University of Cambodia to build these young’s mind, I believe that Cambodian will eventually be able to compete with neighboring countries in the region and more.” UC is pleased to welcome Dr. Sovathana Sokhom to the UC family.
