Graduation Profile of Talent Development Family Memeber Charles Rushimisha
On the sidelines of a poultry plant in 2005, a smug supervisor told Charles Rushimisha that he would be aligning chickens on a conveyor belt at minimum wage for the rest of his life. Newly arrived from Rwanda and barely speaking English, the young man took it as a challenge.
Nine years later, in May 2014, he became not only the first in his family to earn a college degree, but the first to earn two degrees – in chemical engineering and chemistry – even graduating magna cum laude.
Charles grew up in Congo and Rwanda, shifting among family members after his parents died in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. When he arrived in the U.S. in 2005 with a student visa and little more than the clothes on his back, he lived in a shelter before connecting with other African emigrants and finding the job that inspired him to become a college graduate.
Read more on the URI Commencemnet 2014 Website…
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