When Lambert Ngenzi moved to Kent with his mom and four siblings, he was weeks shy of graduating from high school in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But Ngenzi never got the chance to take his final exams and graduate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“If you pass, you can go to university,” Ngenzi said of the exams. “I didn’t have time to do it.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Two years later, the 20-year-old stands tall as a high school graduate. He receives his diploma at Kent-Meridian High School’s commencement ceremony Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Two years before, when I was coming here, I can’t see myself graduating,” he recalled.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi’s parents fled to Congo from their native Rwanda before Ngenzi was born in 1994 to escape genocide in the country.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“My mom asked for a statute of refugee for any country,” Ngenzi said. “We were lucky to get to the USA.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A nonprofit organization helped the family settle in Kent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi almost didn’t get to realize his dream of graduating from high school.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“According to (the nonprofit organization), when you are 18 and you are living with a single mom, you can’t go to high school,” he said. “You have to get a job and go to ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at Highline or (another) community college.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi and his older brother enrolled at Highline, but it wasn’t the right fit for Ngenzi.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I just didn’t like the atmosphere of learning English and going to work,” he said. “I didn’t feel (like) myself.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He convinced the organization to let him attend high school.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi started at Kent-Meridian in the fall of 2013, but it took time to adjust to the American school system. At 18, Ngenzi was older than most of his classmates.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“They thought I was a teacher … and they (would) say, ‘How old are you?’ and I have to say, ‘I am 18,'” Ngenzi said. “It was a little bit weird.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He also had to get used to moving from class to class. In the Congo, students stay in one classroom and the teachers rotate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I stayed after the bell rings,” Ngenzi said. “I was like, ‘OK, where’s the second teacher?’ and I wait and wait. My teacher was like, ‘You have to move (to another classroom).'”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi started at Kent-Meridian as a sophomore, but once the school received his transcripts from the Congo he was elevated to a senior.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He spent one semester in ELL (English Language Learners), where his teacher, Sam Susan, helped him greatly.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“He was the one who used to stay after school until like 5-6 p.m. to work with me,” Ngenzi said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi took two English classes per year in order to meet graduation requirements and also enrolled in several International Baccalaureate and college-level courses.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi is grateful to his friends, family and teachers for helping him succeed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I should say congratulations to everybody,” he said. “Everybody contributed to who I am right now.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He is especially grateful to his mom, Jeanne D’arc.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“She wants us to concentrate on school, so I saw that she is the one who realized that dream to be real. She is happy to be a big part of it.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He hopes graduating from high school will inspire others, especially his three younger siblings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“It is meaningful for my family, even for my community, to represent my family, my country and who I am, too,” he said. “I am trying just to give them an example. I think that when they saw me getting those kind of things, going to college, being the first one to go to a four-year university in the family, maybe (it will) inspire them.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi plans to attend Washington State University in the fall and study environmental science.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Last summer, Ngenzi interned with King County to learn about water quality. The internship persuaded him to try environmental science.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi isn’t sure what he wants to do after college.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I can maybe work internationally or help people. I am open to everything,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ngenzi has another summer internship lined up with the county and also plans to teach French, the official language of the Congo, for an international company.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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