Grew up in mud hut, now she's college grad [View All]

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/966290,CST-NWS-maasai23.article

CHICAGO STATE | Kenyan students plan to become docs, return home

May 23, 2008

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter [e-mail]
For much of her youth, Sitatian Kaelo lived in a mud hut in Kenya with no windows, no electricity and baby goats underfoot.

The nearest watering hole was a four-mile trek there and back. To finish her homework, Kaelo depended on the flickering light from a wood fire and her mother's vigilance.

"She doesn't understand what reading is, but she would stay up with me all night making sure the fire was lit and making sure I didn't burn," said Kaelo, 21.

On Thursday afternoon, three and a half years after coming to America, Kaelo stood on stage before 1,200 of her fellow graduating students at Chicago State University and said simply: "I didn't think this day would ever come."