When Gideon Ndeh was in grade school, he would come home, drop his backpack, and begin a five-mile walk. He and his brother would head to the family farm, where the boys would harvest crops to pay for school fees, books, and household essentials.

After working for a few hours and walking five miles back home, they would crawl into their grandmother’s uncomfortable bed in the middle of the kitchen. The brothers would fall asleep inhaling smoke from the smoldering, burning wood that cooked dinner.

“Although we grew up poor, I gained several precious memories that humbled me and helped me realize the importance of building a community,” Ndeh said.

Life changed in 2008 when Ndeh was 7 years old. His father, Michael, won a visa lottery to leave their village in western Cameroon and moved his family to Maryland the next year.

Ndeh would eventually enroll at Morehouse College, participating in the Dual Degree Engineering Program (DDEP), which allowed him to attend any of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering programs after three years at Morehouse.

“I didn’t even know that Morehouse partnered with Georgia Tech until I started classes,” Ndeh said. “And engineering wasn’t the plan. When I was filling out some forms about my major, I couldn’t find ‘undecided,’ so I clicked ‘engineering.’”

Read Gideon's full story on the College of Engineering website.