Gracián Svačina went to university with a mission: "I wanted to show them that we are normal people too."

By Shuan Sim

Gracián Svačina is a 21-year old who goes to a Czech university, where he studies mass communications. He has writing internships with the country’s leading daily newspaper, Mladá fronta Dnes, and with the news weekly Respekt. He appears to be ordinary. But behind that that appearance is an exceptional success story: Svačina grew up in a state-run children’s home. Only 0.6% of people like him make it into university.

Svačina recalls how his parents would spend their monthly wages in a week and could not afford to take care of him, his two younger brothers and grandfather. He spoke of no hot water and often no food in the house. He and his siblings were not sent to school sometimes. “Most importantly, my father was beating me and my siblings, my mother and our grandfather,” he said. “The police came one day and took us away.”

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