Vietnam Refugee Near Top of Her Class : Graduation: A Simi Valley senior finds inspiration in the memory of her family’s escape from their homeland. Local ceremonies start this week.

The day she nearly drowned off the coast of a remote Indonesian island 11 years ago remains a vivid memory for Simi Valley High School senior Nancy Duong.

Nancy, her younger sister, Daisy, and their parents had fled Vietnam days before on a 50-foot wooden fishing boat jammed with 350 people and headed for Malaysia.

They arrived at a Malaysian port after a tremendous storm, Nancy recalled. “Our boat almost capsized. It was so scary.” But as they approached the port, the boat was fired upon and finally turned away by officials, who towed it several miles offshore and cut it adrift, Nancy said.

Remarkably, the entire Duong family survived. Nancy, now a dimpled, cheerful teen-ager who will turn 18 on Saturday, will receive her high school diploma next week along with 597 other seniors in Simi Valley High’s graduating class.

Across Ventura County, more than 9,000 seniors will receive their diplomas beginning this week in ceremonies at the high schools.

This year’s graduating class includes a number of students who have overcome odds to graduate. They include:

Monica Morales of Moorpark High School, who spoke no English when she arrived in the United States five years ago to live with relatives. This year, she won a full scholarship to Cal Lutheran University, where she will study to become a bilingual teacher.

Harvard-bound Joel Villasenor, a Channel Islands High School senior whose first school was a rickety shack on a ranch in Mexico where an itinerant teacher had only three books.

Adam Lin of Santa Paula High School, whose aim when he left his family behind in Taiwan four years ago was to learn English and eventually attend an American university. Learning 15 English words a day, Adam became fluent after a few years, and this fall, he will enroll in an engineering program at UC Berkeley.

For Nancy Duong’s family, the Simi Valley High graduation ceremony will be especially poignant, she said. She is the first family member to receive an American high school diploma and will be the first to go on to college.

Recalling her long-ago brush with death, Nancy appears unperturbed. But she says the thought of how far her family has come since then is a constant inspiration.

A few days after the Duongs’ boat was set adrift, with their food and water supplies depleted, the boat’s captain spotted land. But as he steered the boat toward shore, it hit a reef and started sinking.

Just before the boat went under, Nancy and her sister, neither of whom could swim, were thrown overboard by their mother, who jumped after them.

The last thing Nancy remembers was hitting the cold water and being grabbed by a man who began carrying her back to shore. She was 6 years old. “The boat was going down, and people were swimming for their lives,” Nancy said. Her rescuer “just held on to me and dragged me onshore. I think I probably fainted or something. I don’t remember anything until we got on the island.”

The Duongs endured a year of hardships after their escape from Vietnam. Once they made it to the island, they camped on the beach for seven months, living in makeshift shelters that were no more than four posts, a thatched roof and canvas walls during the rainy season, Nancy’s mother, Enh Duong, recalled in Vietnamese, with her daughter serving as interpreter.

Food, including daily servings of rice and fish, and occasionally eggs, was provided by a humanitarian group at the encampment, Enh Duong said. Finally, the family was taken by the Red Cross to a refugee camp on a larger island.

After five months, they flew to the United States on a plane chartered by the U.S. government, Enh Duong said. The family was sponsored by Nancy’s uncle in San Francisco, who had escaped from Vietnam some years before.

In San Francisco, Nancy started school a year late and struggled for three years to learn English. But by the time she reached fourth grade, she was nearly fluent and an A student. She skipped fifth grade, catching up with the sixth-graders in her own age group.

In the meantime, the Duong family had moved to Southern California, settling in Simi Valley in 1986.

By the time Nancy graduated from Valley View Junior High School in Simi Valley, she was among the school’s top-ranking students. At Simi Valley High, she maintained an A average while working part-time as an office aide at a law firm.

Next fall, Nancy will enroll at UC Irvine as a biology and premed student. She plans to be a pediatric oncologist, or cancer doctor.

“My choice for a career had a lot to do with my experiences,” said Nancy. “I realize the value of life, and of just having a chance to save another person. Because somebody gave me that chance, I felt I had to give something back.”

Since their arrival, the Duongs have become naturalized citizens. Lam Duong, Nancy’s father, is a bus mechanic, Enh Duong is a housewife, and Daisy, now 15, will be a student at Simi Valley High School next year.

“Nancy is a really dedicated and hard-working student,” said Principal David Ellis. “Her story is remarkable.”

In her application to UC Irvine, Nancy wrote, “My journey to freedom has certainly been a learning experience. I value the house I live in, the food I eat, the clothes I have on my back and the opportunity I have here to get an education. . . . I only hope that, 11 years from now, I can save someone else’s life.”

High School Graduation

Ventura County’s Class of 1991 is getting ready to graduate. Each high school’s ceremony will be held at the school.

DATE LOCATION Tuesday Fillmore Community, Renaissance Continuation Wednesday Moorpark Community Thursday Buena High, Ventura High, Chaparral Continuation High, Fillmore Senior High, Moorpark Memorial High, Nordhoff High, Santa Paula Union High Friday Adolfo Camarillo High, Channel Islands High, Frontier Continuation, Heuneme High, Oxnard High, Rio Mesa High June 18 Apollo Continuation High June 19 Conejo Valley High, Newbury Park High, Thousand Oaks High, Westlake High, Oak Park High June 20 Royal High, Simi Valley High, Oak View High