For Jack
New Scholarship Aims to Change UT Drinking Culture
In a family video from his 2005 high school graduation ceremony, Phanta “Jack” Phoummarath beams a thousand-watt smile. His parents and siblings cluster around him, straightening the shiny sash on his robe. A relative snaps photos, and Jack hams it up for the camera, striking a silly pose.
He looks like any new high school graduate: full of energy and excited to start college. That fall, Jack enrolled at UT and planned to study computer science or business. In search of community, the Laotian-American student joined Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian fraternity.
At Thanksgiving that year, Jack and his four older siblings were all home in Houston with their parents. “I remember how happy he was,” his sister Marion remembers. “He was loving UT. That was the last time I saw him.”
On Dec. 9, 2005, Jack went to a mandatory initiation party at the fraternity. All the fraternity brothers drank shots of Bacardi rum; then the older brothers told Jack and the other new pledges to finish the bottle. When Jack passed out, the brothers thought he would sleep it off. With a blood alcohol level of .41, more than five times the legal limit, he died of alcohol poisoning.
It was a senseless tragedy, and one that could’ve been prevented. If only someone had stayed with Jack and called 911 when he didn’t wake up that night, instead of waiting until the next afternoon. If only the fraternity hadn’t practiced such dangerous, illegal hazing in the first place.
Now, almost six years later, the Phoummarath family wants to prevent other young people from dying in the same way. Through the Texas Exes, they’ve endowed the Phanta “Jack” Phoummarath Scholarship in perpetuity. Though the amount could change, this year it was worth $9,500.
The scholarship isn’t just a check; it’s also a campaign to change the culture of drinking at the University. Recipients must train as peer advisors with UT’s Alcohol and Drug Peer Education Program and work 40 hours each semester with the Dean of Students’ Office and the University Health Services Center.
Richard Edwards, a sophomore chemical engineering major, is the first recipient. “This scholarship felt relevant to my life experience,” he says. “When I was in eighth grade, my best friend started drinking and doing drugs. She became a completely different person, and I felt helpless to stop her.” Then two of Richard’s former high school classmates died when their car was hit by a drunk driver.
Richard tried to start a peer alcohol-abuse prevention program at his El Paso high school, but his plans fell through when he couldn’t find a faculty sponsor. So he used his position as captain of the track team to help others. He recruited several students to the track team—and away from alcohol abuse.
“To really reach someone, you have to spend time with them and show that you care,” he says. “That’s why UT’s peer-prevention program makes so much sense. Change is more effective when it comes from other students.”
Now the Phoummarath scholarship has given Richard a way to achieve his goals. He and his classmates in the peer-education program plan to start a Safe Drivers program to prevent drunk driving. He’ll also visit campus organizations—including fraternities and sororities—to tell Jack’s story and talk about how to prevent hazing and alcohol abuse.
Richard likely wouldn’t be able to focus on alcohol-abuse prevention, or even on studying, without the Phoummarath scholarship. A first-generation college student, he’s paying for college by himself, and the burden of taking on debt was a big distraction, Richard says. “I had the paperwork to apply for a big loan all filled out when I heard I got the scholarship,” he says. “I’m so thankful.”
The Phoummaraths will always grieve. But now they have the small comfort of knowing they’re helping to prevent a similar tragedy. “Jack would have liked this,” Marion says.
Photo courtesy Marion Phoummarath
