KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — If you're a project graduate student, you'll be on stage twice when you graduate. One was the high school graduation ceremony in May, and the other was the Project Grad Celebration of Stars dinner held on April 14 at the Knoxville Convention Center.
Scholars were awarded medallions in a beautiful ceremony. One of her students spoke at each of her two high schools of project graduates.
Angeline Ilankunda represented Austin East Magnet High School.
“After I graduate high school, I plan to attend Emory University to study early childhood development,” she told us. “I plan to become an elementary school teacher.”
Angeline said teaching is a way to give to children who have similar life stories to her own.
“Kids like me come from low-income areas and go to schools where people don't really see us or believe in us because of where we live,” Ilankunda said. “But if they have people pushing them, encouraging them, pouring in to them, they can do great things too.”
Angeline comes from a close-knit family that immigrated from Africa at a young age.
“I’ve lived here since I was little,” she said. So, I can speak most of English, but my parents and older siblings, who didn't grow up here, liked watching them learn English. Let me tell you, it's really difficult. ”
The language barrier actually led to my love for numbers.
“My favorite subject is mathematics. Many people say that they dislike mathematics because it is difficult, and that may be true, but I think that the most difficult subject is English or science.'' I feel it.”
Her grade point average reflects her determination to succeed and her commitment to the Project Grad program.
“My GPS is 4.3. It makes me so proud to see all the hard work I put in over the years paying off and programs like Project Grad pouring into students like me. And that pushes us to try harder. It's like someone believes in me and someone is investing in me,” she said.