Malala is the most welcome surprise
When Malala Yousafzai, a 19-year-old Nobel laureate, makes a surprise visit to your school, it is hard to speak. It’s hard to hold back tears. It can even be hard to stay on your feet, especially when you’re a refugee whose parents fled war or famine or political oppression so you can have an education and opportunity.
“It was amazing. I almost fainted,” said Viola Konneh, a Denver South High School junior, who shared the stage with Yousafzai if only to get a hug and an autograph. “She’s showing us that girls can do anything they want. You have the power to own your own life.”
Yousafzai visited Friday after hearing about the high school during a visit to the city in 2015 and promising to come back. Friday’s assembly was the last stop on her most recent world tour to advocate for girls’ education around the globe.
“We’re blessed because someone said, ‘Go to South because your work and your message live there,’ ” principal Jennifer Hanson said with tears welling because of the impact of the moment.
South High School is a “newcomer center,” with programs designed for refugees who have had limited or interrupted education in their home countries. Students there represent more than 60 countries.
On Friday, three students shared their stories about immigrating to the United States before Yousafzai appeared on stage to tell her story and offer encouragement.
Shambe Zeru, 18, told of walking 28 hours to flee Eritrea in east Africa on the Red Sea and its poverty and military conscription
for boys. He reached a refugee camp in Ethiopia. There, he lived in a small clay hut with eight other children before he and his brother were brought to Denver through Lutheran Family Services.
Zeru hasn’t seen his father and the rest of his family in seven years. But in America he has found the opportunities he wanted.
“You guys have a lot of options,” Zeru said. “I didn’t have options.”
Tulu Chev, a 19-year-old senior, described being hit in a Cambodian school for not answering a question correctly. She was doubled-over with emotion as she explained that her father left his family for two years to go into hiding because he disagreed with the country’s political leaders.
The family escaped to Thailand, where Chev worked in a restaurant with her parents when she was 6. They finally made it to the United States, where Chev struggled in school because she was so far behind in her education. She promised herself she would be an honor student one day.
“I decided to do something better in my life to make my parents proud for bringing me here,” said Chev, who now is an AP honors student.
Jeneba Berety shared how she has served as her mother’s interpreter since they arrived in the United States when she was in kindergarten. Berety’s family fled Sierra Leone during a civil war, and her mother gave birth to her in a forest.
Berety’s mother never had a chance to go to school in West Africa, so the senior said she has tried her best because of that.
“It would be selfish for me to come here and waste my life because my mom went through hell and back to bring me here,” Berety said. “And it’s my chance to show her I’m going to support her and I’m going to fix it.”
As the three told their stories, classmates cheered and shouted encouragement when their words were lost to crying.
There was more to come, though.
Yousafzai’s visit had been kept a secret. As she walked onto the stage when the three students finished speaking, South’s student body erupted into cheers and screams.
“It gave me a lot of energy. It was great to hear some amazing and inspirational speeches,” Yousafzai said to the three. “The stories you shared were really inspiring.”
Several times, Yousafzai was interrupted by students shouting, “I love you.”
Yousafzai told the story of how she became an advocate for female education after the Taliban took control of her region in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. Yousafzai, whose father was a teacher, became a vocal critic of a crackdown that kept girls away from schools.
In October 2012, a Taliban gunman shot her in the head as she rode a bus home from school. She was taken to a hospital in Birmingham, England, where she fully recovered and became more determined to push for girls to have a chance to go to school.
“It was at that point I had seen the worst things I can see in my life and the terrorists had done all they could do to stop me, and they were not successful,” she said. “I should continue my campaign for education.”
In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
After the assembly, Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, met in the school library with 15 boys and girls to answer questions.
The students asked how Malala dealt with family and friends who opposed her, how they could use their voices in Denver and how she was able to talk to presidents and prime ministers around the world.
She also shared her nervousness over applying to colleges, worried that she would not be accepted. She travels with college applications and works on essays during flights, she said.
The group assured Yousafzai that she, of all people, would get into any college she wanted. “Oh, you’ve totally got it,” several said.
Yousafzai’s father told the students that anyone could make themselves heard as long as they were true to their passions and had the patience to persevere because it is not easy and doesn’t happen quickly.
And Malala urged the students to have courage and to not be afraid amid criticism.
“When people start criticizing you, you should know you’re having an impact because your voice is reaching them,” she said. “Take it as a positive. Be open to criticisms. If it is something good, then try to think about it. But if it is something about you and they will not accept you for no reason, it is not good to waste your time on those comments. Keep focused on your work and what you want to do.”