May 12, 2026 – Zainabu Mwamini graduates from Palo Duro High School this month, just three years after she arrived in America. For Zainabu and most children in Uganda, education was merely a dream. It’s not free in Uganda, and many children work to help support their families.

She remembers one particularly harrowing evening after a long day working at the family’s farm. Zainabu’s parents had stayed behind to keep working, and she began the two-hour walk home, her little brother on her back and her younger sister holding her hand. When it began storming, they huddled under a tree and used banana leaves to shield themselves from the downpour.

“That’s what we used as an umbrella. When I saw my sister shivering and my brother crying, I also got mad, because I’m just a kid myself. I would look up at the sky and ask what we did to deserve such a life,” says Zainabu.

Life changed when Zainabu, her mom and four younger siblings emigrated to America from Uganda with the help of UNICEF. Her father had to stay behind. Without hesitation, she recalls the day she arrived in America. “It was March 15, 2023. And then I was able to start school.”

Fast forward three years, and Zainabu has quickly caught up with her peers and leaves high school with a list of academic accolades, scholarships and more than 20 college credit hours. Swahili is Zainabu’s first language, but she can understand or speak 11 languages.

Today, she’s planning to start college at AC, with dreams of becoming a cardiologist.

“My father believes in the power of women going to school. I want to show the people in my country that we girls can also become something.”

It’s a future filled with possibilities. Zainabu, who believes the sacrifices her parents made and the opportunities given to her must be honored with hard work and achievement, is also working on letting herself be happy and enjoy life.

“I used to feel like happiness was a soup, and I was a fork. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hold enough,” says Zainabu. “I’ve come to understand that my story has power and to start using it as my power by not hiding in the shadows of it.”