By Sarah Kinney
Staff Writer

The meeting will not start for another 20 minutes and only three senators are waiting, but she is already setting up the computer for presentations, starting the short announcement list on the board, and double checking the agenda.

This is where you’ll find Sandy Lor, Student Government Association (SGA) president, almost every Wednesday for the hour­-and­a-­half-­long weekly forum.

As e-­board members trickle in, she greets each with a smile, chatting about their weekends and the annual Winter Wonderland dinner.

At 3:31 p.m., she calls the meeting to order and begins moderating short announcements.

“It is a very tough job to be SGA president,” says Priyal Goyal, a classmate of Lor and SGA vice­president.

“You have to meet with so many people around the college, make sure the SGA forums are planned, contact offices/staff/faculty for student concerns and most importantly, speak up for the student body. Sandy handles all of that very well. She works tirelessly day and night and makes sure all her SGA tasks are accomplished on time.”

Lor moderates the meeting as if she has been doing it her whole life, but her role as a Simmons leader might never have happened.

She is the youngest of six children. Her parents, who emigrated from Laos via Thailand, are Hmong people. They were both orphans whose older brothers helped them leave their homes during the “Secret War,” or Laotian Civil War, a proxy war of the Vietnam War.

She is very proud of her heritage and is especially grateful for what she has after listening to her parents’ trials.

“If I could be any person throughout history for a day, I think I would be my dad the day he swam through the Mekong River from Laos to Thailand. I hear so many stories about his past but it makes me want to relive his life and understand him more,” Lor said.

“With my day, I would explore how my father lived as an orphaned refugee child in the forests of Laos during the Vietnam War…. I guess that’s kind of odd but I am interested in the past of my parents and my culture.”
Yet, her heritage could have kept her from all she has accomplished.

“In my culture, women are not encouraged to be leaders in the community,” Lor said.

Often women are encouraged to marry young and cater to their husband’s family. She hopes that by continuing in her leadership roles, she can help break down barriers for others like her community.
She is already breaking some of those barriers.

This May, she will be the first in her family to graduate college with a bachelor’s degree.

When Lor was younger, she wanted to be a teacher. She liked the idea of decorating her classroom and grading papers, especially with stickers. She played “school” with her siblings, which she said got her interested in the career.

“As the youngest, I was always the student. While my parents were at work, my older sister would gather my other siblings and I and give us assignments,” Lor said.

“We used our apartment as the school and different rooms for different classes. Before I entered kindergarten, I was able to read and write but I was most proud of being able to spell ‘elephant’.”

However, her father encouraged her to look at careers more lucrative than an elementary school teacher, and pushed her towards pharmacy.

She became more interested in science during high school. Lor also enjoys being creative. Despite being bilingual, she says it’s sometimes difficult to explain her feelings.

She always liked being an artist because it allowed her another way to communicate.
“Sometimes words can’t express what you feel,” Lor said.

Now, she is majoring in Biochemistry on the Pre-­Dental track and a Studio Arts minor.
It seems like an unusual combination, but Lor says they go together well.

When she learned more about dentistry at a conference during her first year at Simmons (initially on the Pre­-Med track), she knew she had found something that combined her love of art with the sciences. She says in filling a tooth, not only do you have to make the filling look like a tooth, but also the grooves have to match up with the other row of teeth.

To her, dentistry is a bit of an art, which allows her to work with her hands.

After Lor graduates in four months, she hopes to attend dental school. She has applied to 15 schools in the greater New England area, but she won’t say which.

For the next five months, she will be completing her leadership roles at Simmons as SGA President and a member of the Pre­-Dental committee within the Pre­-Health Liaison.

While at Simmons, Lor has also participated in volleyball, Simmons World Challenge, the Emerging Leaders Program, and the Scott/Ross Center.

Lor credits much of her success to the dedication from her mentors, and she seeks to repay that by being a mentor herself.

With the Scott Ross Center, she created a proposal for the Gateway Program for Education Sparks, where she mentored children at the O’Bryant School.

“My high school mentor, who I continue to keep in touch with today, inspired me to add the mentoring component to the Gateway tutoring program to make it the tutoring and mentoring program,” Lor said.
Many of the students she mentors are first­ generation Americans, like herself. She hopes to be part of the support system for kids dealing with multiple cultures.

“My own struggles of defining who I was a woman in my culture ­ where I wanted to grow in a modern world but still respect how things were done traditionally ­ was my biggest struggle during high school. Coming from an underserved community, I used my experiences to relate to students at the high school,” Lor said.

“Sandy, when she’s volunteering, is just as outgoing and sensitive to the needs of others as she is when we’re just hanging out and enjoying ourselves,” said Danielle Ehrnstein, who worked with her on the Education Sparks program.

“It’s this sensitivity to others and her desire to pass forward the positive mentoring experiences she had in high school (which we talked about extensively in writing the proposal) that leads her to volunteer.”
Lor feels that when she is helping the students it helps her to be more confident, make a greater difference, and influences change.

She is no longer the student director of the program because of her commitments with SGA, but Ehrnstein said Lor still helps her brainstorm ideas when they run into difficulties.

“She’s bright, fun, and absolutely loves pho,” said Ehrnstein.

“At least once a month we wind up ordering a delivery of pho from Pho and I.”

Pho is a beef Vietnamese soup that Lor says is her favorite food. Her favorite holiday is Christmas, because she gets to be a kid, spend time with family, and have pho on Christmas Day. Her family makes the broth from scratch and they eat it together.

“Later on in the evening, we eat pho again, because you can never have enough of it.” Lor said.

Family is a big part of what influences Lor and they have been the ones who have motivated her to take on some of her leadership roles.

Nestled between the John Fitch Highway and a small stream departing from Putnam Pond is Coolidge Park, Lor’s favorite place in her hometown of Fitchburg, Mass.

While others played softball and street hockey in the park, seventh-­grader Lor started a volleyball team with her cousins, whom she estimates were in fifth grade at the time.

Her brothers had encouraged her to start the team.

“My relationship with my brothers helped me to be less intimidated by men and take more risks than I would have otherwise,” said Lor.

“My brothers took many risks, but in different ways. I took a risk to try and grow to be a leader in my community, whether it was during high school or college.”

Lor went on to play on her high school and college volleyball teams. Since then, volleyball has become a family tradition.

“Volleyball is that one thing that keeps our family together,” Lor said, adding that they play as a family when home on vacations.

Volleyball is what drew her to Simmons. After visiting the Simmons volleyball team for an overnight, she felt a sense of community within the team.

“I don’t know these people, but they care so much about me,” Lor said she thought after visiting.

She is not on the team anymore, but still plays intermural volleyball on occasion. Lor said that as her passion for dentistry increased her love of volleyball has decreased.

She said that with her other priorities even when she has time to play, she is distracted by the other things she has going on. What can we expect from her in the future?

“Dr. Sandy Lor (future dentist),” said Goyal.

“Sandy is a go­getter, a dreamer, and a big thinker,” said Ehrnstein.

With strong friends, family, and cultures behind her, Lor is ready to lead and take on the next challenge.