Virus can’t stop dream for onetime refugee
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A day of virtual learning – the 20th, to be exact – gave way to a balmy evening in Ezechiel Kagiraneza’s tidy neighborhood, near the southwestern edge of Jefferson County, Kentucky.
His younger siblings bounced carelessly on a backyard trampoline, the sound of their giggles bounding over a wooden fence and into the family’s cul-de-sac. Every few minutes, a band of neighborhood kids zoomed by on dirt bikes – the fleeing hours of daylight at their tail.
But on that evening in early May, Ezechiel, a 17year-old high school senior, was nowhere in sight.
Though Jefferson County Public Schools had scrambled to find thousands of students after the coronavirus pandemic forced school buildings to close, Ezechiel was not among them.
An honor roll student with perfect attendance, Ezechiel kept in contact with his teachers and kept at his schoolwork when remote learning began.
But the coronavirus brought new responsibilities for the teen, who came to Louisville as a refugee from his native Rwanda when he was 12. And even though Ezechiel remained engaged with school the best he could, the abrupt shift to at-home learning was far from ideal.
“At school, you have to talk with other students, share ideas with teachers,” he said. “But here, you have to work alone. Some assignments are really hard, and you don’t even know what to do.”
He’d overcome difficulties before. Ezechiel’s native language is Kinyarwanda. But his English is strong. In becoming a refugee, Ezechiel “had to quit school” for a period of time, he said.
As he looked forward to graduating from Iroquois High School, Ezechiel’s education was interrupted again. Though he tried “really hard” to complete his assignments remotely, it wasn’t easy, he said.
Among the challenges Ezechiel faced were simple logistics.
There are, including him, seven school-age children in his family’s Valley Station home. But the school district provides only one Chromebook per low-income family.
He and two of his brothers, a sophomore and a sixth grader, decided to trade the Chromebook back and forth. His other siblings take turns borrowing a separate computer, normally used by Ezechiel’s older brother, a student at Jefferson Community and Technical College.
Ezechiel said he was sad to miss field trips, prom and other activities planned for the Class of 2020. He was supposed to retake the ACT in April – hoping to get a higher score – “but the corona messed it all up.”
On that May morning, long before his block would come alive with the sounds of pre-dinnertime play, Ezechiel took his turn with the Chromebook, using it to complete an assignment for a medical class at Iroquois.
Accepted to Eastern Kentucky University, Ezechiel is considering becoming a paramedic.
Later in the day, his responsibilities moved beyond school, as he accompanied his mother, who doesn’t speak English well, to the grocery store.
After touching base with his college counselor, Ezechiel granted himself a short break in front of the TV. But by early evening, he was up and moving again.
This time, Ezechiel set off in his Mazda sedan for the Tyson Foods poultry plant in Corydon, Indiana.
As the only member of his family with a driver’s license, Ezechiel has started shuttling his father to and from his job there.
That day’s trip lasted two hours.
After snaking through snarled traffic on Dixie Highway, Ezechiel and his dad pulled into their driveway, each adorning a surgical-type mask. Again, Ezechiel appeared unfazed. Ezechiel’s routines and responsibilities would continue right up until he graduated last week. Throughout, Ezechiel said he tried his best to stay focused on school – something neither his dad nor his grandfather were able to do.
“My generation is the first one to go to school,” he said. “... I think I’ll get through it.”
He did.