“[My father] was the eldest, and everyone before him had been a farmer. So, he started his own business and gave opportunities to my uncles and everyone, even though he hadn’t had much formal schooling. One of the drawbacks was he couldn’t speak English, but he kept going. He went from the village to the towns creating his good name. Everybody knows him. We are four children, and we all went to boarding school. Hopefully, I’ll grow up to be like him.”

“The hardest part for me was the language barrier, especially in school, when you’re trying to say something to the teacher but don’t know the words. Now math, that was different. Math was easy in comparison to what we used to do in Somalia. I would finish the practice super quickly and would have to wait for the rest of the class. Then, people would ask me how I had done the equations, but I didn’t know how to explain. I’d tell them, ‘Give me your pen, and I’ll show you how to do it.’”

“It’s still good to be present because a mother’s role is still important. I talk to them every day, ask them if they went to school and such. I always check in with their teachers to see if they’re doing good. My youngest is an honor student. I’m very proud. I tell him, ‘at least with that I forget that I work so hard. I’m so happy. It makes me stronger.’"

"I moved to Portugal where my mom and her husband were living because I had no job and didn’t have money for rent or to send home for my daughter. But then, as I was getting ready to find work, I found out my Spanish papers weren’t valid for work in Portugal. I didn’t want to waste more time doing nothing, so I went back to school. I barely spoke Portuguese, but I would sit at the library trying to decipher the text books, asking for help on the internet so I could study for my tests."