Vongphakdy, who goes by Leo, will be at the Marriott Center this week to receive his BYU diploma, a Bachelor of General Studies degree with a management emphasis. There to cheer for him will be his parents, his wife Julia, and their three children, Jordan, Joshua and Jasmin.
Born in war-torn Laos, Leo was only six years old when his family, an uncle and another family dodged border guards and floated canoes across the Mekong River into Thailand in search of a better, more stable life. There they were put into one refugee camp, then another.
