VALRICO — When most high school seniors dream of going to college they usually consider an in-state school or maybe a university a few states away.
Peter Hanhan's college experience will take him 8,000 miles west to another continent.
The Bloomingdale High School senior will spend his next four years on the Shanghai, China, campus of New York University.
An outstanding student who served as senior class vice president and founded the school's World Culture and International Affairs club, Hanhan applied to NYU at the urging of his school's college and career counselor.
For years, he's been interested in China and its culture. So when he filled out the admissions application to attend the New York City campus and realized NYU's two other campuses in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi could also review it, he thought he'd give it a shot.
"I figured a guy can dream, so why not?" Hanhan said. "Initially, I thought this would never happen, but it's happening!"
As an NYU Shanghai student, Hanhan's curriculum will be the same as what he would take if he attended class in NYC. Lessons are taught in English, but students take intensive Mandarin language classes to become fluent.
In an effort to make them comfortable with Chinese culture, international students like Hanhan, are assigned roommates from China.
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This won't be the first time Hanhan will learn a new culture and language.
His family returned to their native Palestine shortly after Hanhan's birth in the United States. While there, the ongoing conflict with Israel escalated.
In 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber attacked a hotel in an Israeli resort town. The military conflict was part of Operation Defensive Shield, at the time, the largest military operation since Israel's Six Day War in 1967.
Hanhan said that in retaliation, the Israeli military raided the apartment building where his family lived, and held the entire residents hostage in the basement.
At the tender age of 6, Hanhan recalls seeing people shot and killed, and the sky aglow with flames.
A few days into the hostage siege, Hanhan's father, Amin, found a crowbar to lift the garage door to escape, not knowing whether soldiers would be on the other side of the door waiting for them. Being killed was a very real possibility. The family fled to Jordan before emigrating to the United States.
For nearly a decade after arriving in the States, Hanhan suffered what's called avoidance post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He wouldn't talk about the experience to anyone and even tried to avoid his Palestinian language and culture. Eventually, he came to grips with the experience, but the event has been a defining moment in his life.
"It's easy to generalize people," he says. "It opened my eyes to find a solution. The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to have them meet. The problem is political, but the solution is people."
Hanhan's mother, Gloria, admits that the transition to living in America and Tampa wasn't easy for the family. During his first few years of school, children teased and bullied Peter and his older brother.
"People have pre-existing opinions of us (Palestinians)," said Gloria Hanhan, adding that the media's interpretation of the conflict often shows "how bad Palestinians are. They don't show the other side."
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Hanhan wrote about his horrific childhood experience in a ninth-grade essay. Impressed with what he wrote, teachers and counselors at Bloomingdale urged him to submit the story to the national "Breaking Barriers" essay contest sponsored by Major League Baseball and the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
Hanhan beat out nearly 6,000 other students to earn the top prize. More recently, he was a recipient of the statewide Anne Frank Humanitarian Award.
"He's always looking for ways to make the world a better place," commented Bloomingdale principal Susan Burkett. "I have no doubt that we will read about him in 10 years doing something great that impacts the world."
Burkett praised Hanhan's selflessness, recalling the story of how Hanhan found several hundred dollars in cash on the school floor last year.
When no one claimed the money, Burkett split the funds with Hanhan, who used his share to buy water and copper wire, which he used to make jewelry. He sold the trinkets to fellow students then donated the proceeds and the water to homeless people in the area.
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While Hanhan's early life could have left him bitter, he plans to spend his life being a catalyst for change. It might not come as a surprise that he intends to study international relations in hopes of joining the diplomatic corps or working for the United Nations.
During spring break, NYU flew the teen to China to tour the campus and meet his professors. The visit fueled his excitement. He's been getting a head start on his Mandarin language studies and says he can't wait for his Shanghai adventure to begin.
"I have a countdown clock on my phone," he said gleefully. "I'm ready."
Contact Candace Rotolo at hillsnews@tampabay.com.