A 15-year-old Cambodian girl has recently made news headline, following a gold medal award won by a 16-year-old boy. Among 196 candidates from 36 countries, Mom Charya is the winner of the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) held in Indonesia. The exams in the competition included theory, problem solving, and actual experiment.

Born into a family of farmers, she first entered a school in rural area in Siem Reap province, where there was no well-equipped research matierals, not to mention experimental and practice classes. She later moved to a high school in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. At her age she has her vision. She wants to be a researcher in Cambodia.

On Mungkol's weblog, a comment read that:

“she’s a brillant new Cambodian generation, to bring prosperity to our beloved Cambodia.
By the ways, she’s endowed with intelligent as well as beauty.”

Other silver medal nominees included young people from South Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Germany, Serbia, China, Romania, Russia, the Philippines, Croatia, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Vietnam.

Also in the news, a young man from Cambodia was honored for his participation in the international science contest. Dy Kuchsa won a gold medal in the science contest, which organized by the same institution. Kalyan, a university student wrote that:

“I am very proud of Dy KouchSa, a Cambodian student who won the gold medal in the World Science Competition for student under 16 held in Indonesia. I believe that in the near future there will be many more bright fellows like him to help develop our country.”

“you are wonderful for not only yourself and your family but also for our BELOVED COUNTRY, CAMBODIA. Move forward! Don't stop here. Try to study English and be good at it before you finish high school. Then you will have lots of chance to get scholarship to study abroad. DON'T STOP! KEEP MOVING! Cambodia needs lots of people like you. We are proud of you!”

With enthusiasm and courage, young people play a vital role in the contribution to the nation development. At their age, they feel they want to be part of something, something significant in rebuilding the war-torn nation. Organized by Institute of Foreign Languages in Phnom Penh, on May 6, 2006, group of students participated in a social work to promote environmental issues. This clean-up day aimed to spread the words to people to help keeping the country clean for their own well-beings. And Sopha posted some selective photo of her and friends in ‘Clean-up Day’ T-shirt.