High school senior who spent 10 years in refugee camps earns $240,000 in scholarships

Graduating from high school with a huge scholarship is not a common thing. Meet Juliane Lukambo, who spent 10 years as a refugee in Uganda and has been granted about $240,000 worth of scholarships, as reported by PEOPLE. Lukambo said that she has worked really hard all these years for this day. According to her, getting the scholarship is a recognition of her hard work. 

She reportedly spent 10 years in Uganda after her family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Due to the ongoing war, we had to move to Uganda as refugees, so that's where I spent most of my childhood," she said. "Life in the refugee camps was not easy," reports WBNS. After the family moved to the United States, Lukambo also found it difficult to adapt to a new country. “You come here [to the U.S.], and you don’t know what to expect,” she said. Lukambo began her schooling as a fifth-grader at Valley Forge Elementary School.

Getting used to the new school was another challenge for Lukambo. “It was hard in the beginning just getting used to the language and the students,” she said. “You are just thrown out there, and you have to learn to adjust to that all by yourself,” according to a press release from Woodward Park Middle School. “If you’re going to be a [Northland] Viking, you have to adapt to different situations,” she added. “Different situations are going to get thrown at you, and you need to be able to put that to charge.” She was part of the STEM club, soccer, and even the bowling team. Moreover, she got high grades and impressive internships. “Internships are definitely something you should try,” said Lukambo. “Internships can teach you what you don’t like [in a job], and you can learn something valuable from that.” That's not all. She also took classes at local colleges while studying and getting high grades at Northland High School.

The high-performing student excelled in Maths. It's her favorite subject and when asked why, she said, “You can always approach the problem from different ways and directions,” she said. “You often come to the same conclusion, the same answer.” Seeing her efforts and success, Lukambo became the valedictorian of her graduating class and will now be going to the University of Dayton to study computer science. According to her, the highlight of her career at the school is that she is at the top of her competitive class with the highest grade point average. "It brings it all to a close," said Lukambo. She is all prepared to start her college life as she spent the past two years splitting her time between taking classes at Northland, Columbus State, and Otterbein University. “I got a headstart on what the college experience is,” she said. 

The advice she has for others is to "get out of your comfort zone." "Overcoming the adversity that I have had to overcome to reach where I am today has been a real challenging journey." She added that it's "something I'm really grateful for and proud of."