Junior center Sooren Derboghosian sat to the left of a man he hadn’t seen for years.
His father.
Derboghosian came to the United States from his home in Tehran, Iran two years ago to attend Glendale Community College and hasn’t been back since. And now for the first time, his father, Hovakom Dir Boughousian Pekajaki, has been able to visit.
Derboghosian reached out to coach Ben Howland while at Glendale Community College and expressed his interest to eventually become a Bruin.
“We knew about him, and someone had reached out to us on his behalf,” Howland said.
“And so he came up this summer and loved it, and so we gave (him) an opportunity to be a walk-on.”
But even before colleges showed interest in him at Glendale, he knew exactly where he wanted be while still in Iran.
“I had the dream to be a Bruin before I even came here,” Derboghosian said. “I saw the opportunity to, and I was really excited.”
“(Iranians) do know specifically about UCLA ““ it’s such a big name there. Over there, East Coast people know about, like, Harvard and West Coast people know about UCLA. Being a Bruin over there is such a big-time thing. There are so many Iranians living around Los Angeles, so there’s a lot of exposure in Iran, so a lot of people know about this school.”
But it was the initial pull of academics that brought Derboghosian to Westwood. He said that UCLA was “especially well-known academically compared to athletically.”
Derboghosian’s Twitter biography says that he “came to America to achieve his goals.” But what goals, exactly?
“My dream is, first of all, getting an education from here ““ finish school after my senior year. And then, my biggest dream, after academics, would be making the NBA. I know it’s a big dream, but it is achievable with hard work, patience and being focused.”
And while basketball remains important to Derboghosian, his father echoes his son’s sentiment regarding education.
“It’s been an honor for our family that he’s a Bruin ““ UCLA is a big time school and is known around the world, so we’re happy he’s here,” his father said.
“Hopefully, first of all, he’s going to get his education first, and then he’s going to shoot for his second goal, which is basketball. And hopefully they can make some noise in that.”
Derboghosian’s focus on education can be attributed to his academic upbringing in Iran.
“That’s why I love coaching kids from foreign backgrounds,” Howland said.
“Typically their appreciation for the education and for this country is so much greater than our own because they have a different vantage point and perspective.”
While in the United States students pick their majors in college, in Iran, students begin their major coursework in high school and complete it in college.
“So over there, I would say that for high school, it’s kind of tougher compared to here,” Derboghosian said. “You have to pick a major, you only take your major classes, so you basically only take upper division classes. It’s kind of tough compared to other countries.”
But the work doesn’t stop after high school. According to Derboghosian, upon graduation from high school, university hopefuls have to take entrance exams specific to whichever university they want to attend, unlike the SAT that applies to all universities and colleges in the United States.
If a student is deemed not qualified because of his or her score on the entrance exam, the student must retake the exam the next year. Because of this, Derboghosian feels it is more difficult to be accepted into universities in Iran.
But it has paid dividends clearly for Derboghosian. He is able to eloquently portray his ideas in a language that isn’t his first ““ or his second, third, or even fourth ““ but his fifth.
“Well, learning my fifth language ““ it wasn’t that easy. It took me a little while to get used to. Like writing 12-page papers and theses, so it was a transition,” he said.
“My first language is Armenian, and I speak Farsi, I speak Arabic, a little bit of Russian, and then English.”
But the language barrier and the transition to the U.S. has been eased by those around him in Los Angeles.
“The transition has been easier than I thought. I have family here ““ I have cousins here and there are big numbers of Iranians here,” Derboghosian said. “So I can find my culture, my food, without a problem.”
And while things have begun to translate for Derboghosian at UCLA, his origins with basketball have felt perfectly at home on campus.
When asked about his exposure to basketball while in Iran, Derboghosian looked over to his right at his dad and smiled before answering.
“They televise the NBA in Iran, and sometimes they televise college basketball. The first time I was watching UCLA, I didn’t know what college basketball was. My dad told me that there are college divisions in the U.S. and that the team that was playing was UCLA. I was like four-and-a-half or five at the time, and he mentioned that, “˜Hopefully, one day you will get in.'”