From Refugee to College President: Dr. Amanuel Gebru on Mentorship, Access & Global Education

What does it take to go from a young refugee learning English in a new country to leading one of the most diverse community colleges in America?

In this episode of International Student Stories, host Soleil Perrin sits down with Dr. Amanuel Gebru, President of Los Angeles City College, to explore a remarkable journey shaped by resilience, mentorship, and the transformative power of education.

Dr. Gebru reflects on immigrating to the United States at the age of eight, navigating life as a first-generation college student, and the teachers, counselors, coaches, and mentors who helped him discover opportunities he never imagined. Along the way, he shares why community colleges are one of higher education's greatest engines of access, opening doors for students from every background and every stage of life.

Together, they discuss global education, the importance of belonging, LACC's vibrant international community, and why creating a welcoming campus can change the trajectory of a student's life. Dr. Gebru also shares how mentorship has shaped his own career and why he believes every student deserves someone who believes in their potential.

Whether you're an international student, an educator, or simply someone who believes in the power of opportunity, this conversation is a reminder that where you begin doesn't define where you can go.

Transcript

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Speaker 1 (Soleil): 00:30
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Soleil Perrin, and welcome to International Student Stories brought to you by Study in the USA and Los Angeles City College. This episode is part of the LACC podcast residency, a special series recorded on campus at Los Angeles City College, spotlighting the students, alumni, faculty, and leaders who make this college what it is. Today's guest is the president of Los Angeles City College, but his story begins long before that role. Dr. Amanuel Gebru, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 00:59
Thank you, Soleil. Excited to be with you today. Welcome to LA City College. Thank you. An amazing institution, amazing community. So I'm excited to have a conversation with you and welcome you to our beautiful campus.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 01:12
Thank you. Me as well. Okay, let's start at the beginning. So you immigrated to the United States when you were eight years old. Can you tell us about where you came from and what was life like before you arrived here?

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 01:25
So I came here when I was eight years old from Sudan. I was born in Sudan, but my family is from Ethiopia. So my father left Ethiopia, went to Sudan, met my mother, and thank God I was made in Sudan. And since then, that journey has been an amazing journey because everyone has a story and everyone has a purpose. So for me, growing up in Sudan, speaking Arabic fluently at the time, and then also speaking my native language of Tegrinya and Amharic. So through those eight years of my time, you know, I spoke three different languages. I had no idea that I would be coming to the U.S. But we always had a dream of coming to America. And the purpose that my father had for us was the focus on education. He always said, we're going to go to America for a better opportunity. But he said, we're going to America so that you can get an education. So he always mentioned that even when I was little, even when I was in kindergarten in Sudan in first grade, I didn't understand his vision and his purpose for us. But he told my brother and I, we're going to America for you to get an education. And that's where the journey began to come to the U.S. We flew all the way from Sudan to San Diego. I think we had a pit stop in Germany. Didn't speak the language, didn't know what to expect. And we, you know, we were refugees, so we got our paperwork or visa or whatever my father did. And we immigrated to the U.S. for an opportunity for a better life. Growing up in Sudan was not easy because my father, who lived in Ethiopia, who used to do really well, who had to leave his family and go to Sudan because of the war at the time. So that was tough for him. And then he made the journey to the U.S. to pursue a better life, a better opportunity, but most importantly, to pursue an education.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 03:26
And you were eight when you came to the US. So what was kind of the biggest surprise about America when you first arrived here?

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 03:33
I was so excited to come to the States. I mean, being young, you don't know what to expect. I didn't speak the language, and the transition was tough in terms of navigating, being a kid who grew up in Sudan, who spoke his native language, who spoke Arabic, and now you're coming to a country where there's no one that would translate for you. Even though when I was taking ESL courses, usually someone translates from the native language, or in most cases, maybe usually Spanish-speaking students would have someone translate. But for me, I spoke Tegrinya and Amharic, and I spoke Arabic. No one was there to make that transition for me when I was in third grade. And the interesting thing was I would take a spelling test every Friday, but I never knew what the teacher was saying. So I'd come home to my dad and I would show him these tests that I would take, and it had like an F on it. And he was like, why do you keep getting F's? I was like, Dad, what does that mean? He said, that means you're failing the test. I said, how am I supposed to understand what to do when the lady only speaks English and I don't speak English? So that's when my father made the connection and tried to help me navigate and understand by reading at home, by also watching TV, by hanging out with kids, by playing basketball, which was new to me. And growing up in Africa, we played football, which they call soccer here. But the kids all played basketball, where they put a ball in the small little hole. So it didn't make sense to me and to my brother. But you know, just like most kids, we adapted, we learned, and we became part of the community. But it was hard trying to figure out how to navigate, not speaking English, trying to make friends with kids who, you know, I was probably the only kid from Africa in that school.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 05:24
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 05:25
So it was, I don't want to say it was tough because when you're young, you don't even know what hard is. So you just navigate through those processes.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 05:34
And you were a first-generation college student. Can you tell me more about your educational journey and kind of what that experience as a first-generation college student actually felt like?

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 05:45
Yeah. Coming from Africa and then from Sudan specifically, like I mentioned before, the focus was on education. So even though my father raised me, my brother and I, I always knew that I would go to college. I just didn't know what that process was like. Being the first person in my family to go to college is not something that I'm proud of because when you think about saying you're the first, that means others didn't get an opportunity or others didn't go to college, others didn't see the value in education. So for me, I wish all my brothers and sisters went to college because I want to normalize having a college education as an access piece, which is what we talk about in the community college system. Like, how do we provide access? So for me, even though I went to college, even though I had a process where, you know, when my father passed away, I didn't know what was going to happen next. And it happened when I was a teenager. But I always remembered what my father told us. You came to the States to pursue your education. And since I was a student athlete also, and I played basketball and I ran track, that helped me stay focused on the journey of going to college. Because as a teenager, not having a lot of guidance, not having parents around, being on your own, I relied on the teachers, the counselors, the people in that community at my high school who kind of helped shape me going to college, who supported me because they saw potential. Just like when we see young people on our college campuses, a lot of times they don't know what their journey is. They don't know what the next step is. So that's why I believe in mentorship. Even though I didn't know what mentorship was at the time, someone decided to say, you know what, we want to help this young man. We want to help him get to college. So my journey began as a student athlete where I went to Cal State Long Beach to pursue my education, but also to pursue athletics. As a young person, we always think we have these Olympic dreams that we think we're gonna be professional athletes or we're gonna make it to the next level. And those aspirations helped me stay focused and stay on track, stay disciplined, which helped shape the direction of making sure I went to college, making sure I studied, making sure I had a support system, not only at the high school level with my counselors and teachers, but the same approach continued because now the institution, the college was invested in me because I was a student athlete. Because I began my journey to pursue higher education and going to Cal State Long Beach as a freshman, being a student athlete was one of the best experiences for me because coming from a background where in high school things weren't as stable, losing my father at 15, 16 to cancer, a lot of times growing up in a community, it wasn't the best community where we grew up in a project, Section 8 housing, and things were tough. And most kids that I grew up with in that community didn't go to college. So for me to be able to not get caught up in that environment, to not lose focus, and to have a good support system from my counselors, my teachers, and then also just believing in what I was taught since I was young. My father instilled the focus of you're gonna get an education. So remembering that helped shape me pursuing my education in college and then going to Cal State Long Beach was the beginning of stability for me. Like living in the dorms, having that community, having teammates, and the most important part, having three meals a day in the dining hall. Those little things mattered because a lot of times when you're pursuing a journey of education, like many of our students, there's always hurdles, there's always challenges. And I recognize that as an educator now. Like, what do we do to improve opportunities for young students that come to us from our local community, but also from globally? So my experiences, my challenges, my lack of a support system, not having family, for me, I was able to connect to the community of people who saw potential in me and who mentored me when I didn't even know what mentoring was. So my college experience, even though athletics didn't work out and I didn't become an Olympic athlete, I met some amazing people who made sure that I graduated, from my counselors, from the athletic team, but also from someone that I met, her name is Miss McDonald, and she had a huge influence in being part of my support system. She became my second mom. My mom, when I left Sudan, you know, I was very young. And my mom and I didn't have a relationship because my father and my mom weren't together. So having come here, being raised by my father, who was a single parent, navigating all those challenges and meeting people who continue to pour into me is part of the reason I do the work that I do to support young people, because you never know anybody's story. You never know their challenges, you never know their potential. But when we see value in someone, it may help change and transform their lives to where they may even become a college president, they may become a physician, they may become a lawyer, whatever it may be. So for me, meeting someone like Miss McDonald, who every morning we'd have breakfast in the dining hall with her. So my roommate and I, who was my best friend, Ron Johnson, since middle school, he played on the basketball team. I ran track. She would see us every morning. She worked in the dorms in the residence halls, and she knew we were athletes, so she invited us to Taco Tuesday, before they had Taco Tuesdays at our house. And she became the second mom. She became the mom that I didn't have. And she was the one that helped me apply for grad school. She helped me apply for my master's program and said, boy, you better go to school. What are you gonna do? And I was like, I need a job, I need to make money. She said, boy, you better go to school. And I had never met a family, a black family growing up in San Diego, growing up in the projects. You don't see a role model of two parents that went to college, two of their kids that went to college, one to Stanford, one to Washington State. They were both student athletes. So when we saw them, we were like, you guys are like the all-American family. You guys are like, you know, the model family that we never saw growing up. So having that kind of influence, that kind of support system, and that kind of modeling, and someone who just said, I'm gonna help you apply to grad school, and filled out my grad school application. And then even when I finished that, she said, now you're gonna go get your doctorate. And she helped fill out my application to get my doctorate when others were like, he's not ready to go. She's like, we're not gonna listen to them. So having people like her who are like parents, like father figure, her and Mr. McDonald, Ms. McDonald and Mr. McDonald, they've been at all my graduations. They were at my inauguration here when I became president three years ago. So for me, I believe in the power of community, the power of a support system, and the power of mentorship. Because I had that kind of impact from people from an early age that helped me navigate college, which is not easy. Not having parents, like many of our students. In this case, our students being unhoused, our students being first generation, being low income, coming from environments that are similar to me. I get it. You can never fully understand what someone is going through day to day, but I know what it's like to get up at four in the morning and catch the bus when I was in high school. I know what it's like to come home at 10 p.m. catching a bus and a train. And that can be tough depending on your environment, depending on your situation. So for me, I'm always sensitive to how do we make life, how do we make our institution a place where students feel welcome, supported, and create a community for them. Cal State Long Beach created a community for me that I didn't even know I had because I met Ms. McDonald, I met other people, I had teammates on the track team, having that kind of support system helps you finish. And I always tell these young men that I mentor, what was the last thing you finished? Like you graduated from high school, but what did you actually finish after that? Because we have adult students, we have young students, and we always tell them you have to finish one thing at a time. You finished high school eight years ago. Now you're 28, 29, 30 years old. Finish one more thing. Finish your degree because you will never realize what you will learn, how it will empower you, and how it will help transform your life. Because education has changed my life. I'm here supporting our students, our community, and I have a vision for a global community. Now I wasn't an international student, I came as an immigrant, I came as a refugee, and those experiences helped me see things that maybe others don't see in terms of why it is important to have global education. Because we have students from 72 countries that are represented on our campus. 72 countries. And when I first lived in the dorms because I was a last-minute recruit, I lived in the international house. My roommate, Su Chun Choa, was from Malaysia. And I had never met anybody from Malaysia before or Asia. And having that experience where they paired up an American student with an international student, but I'm like, I'm kind of international too. I wasn't even born here. But I didn't come as a typical F1 visa student, I just happened to grow up here. So they put me in the international building because there was no more housing. And that experience helped introduce me to the international community, from students from all over the world. And that's the experience I want to create for our students. 72 countries, these students are in our classes, in our community, and they can teach our students from the U.S. things that our students may have never heard of. I never thought about traveling abroad. Imagine meeting somebody from Malaysia, from Korea, from Ghana, from Ethiopia, and being friends with them. And someone said, hey, you should come visit my country. So that's the kind of community and culture because I believe that international education adds so much value to the pedagogy, to the curriculum, to the community, to the culture. And we're a very diverse campus here in terms of our faculty makeup, staff makeup, but also our student makeup.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 16:51
So going off of that, what do community colleges make possible for students that sometimes people might underestimate?

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 16:59
I think people always say community college is about access. I believe that for many students that don't have college in their vista, for many students like me growing up who didn't know where to go or didn't have an ideal situation where they said, you know what, I want to go to Harvard, UCLA, we are the first opportunity of introduction. We are their first experience of what college life could be. And I always tell parents if a student comes to LACC and they take English here as a freshman or English at UCLA, it's still English 101. And in the end, if they do two years here, they can transfer to UCLA. I have a student who's going to Cornell, we have students going to Berkeley, I have students that are mentored that are going to UCLA. And this starting point becomes part of their journey because when they graduate, they can go anywhere in the world. You can go to study in the UK, you can go study in Africa. There's universities in Ghana, Ethiopia, there are studies all over the world. But that's the information they don't know. So when I sit with students and they say, hey, I'm thinking about transferring here, I said, have you ever thought about going to school out of the country? And they'd be like, what? Have you ever thought about studying abroad?

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 18:16
They're like, no.

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 18:17
These are the things no one told me that now I tell students because I've been to over 56 countries and I believe in global education. And I'll speak to the things that we're doing in partnership with global education because the community college supports our community, which is always our priority. But our community comes to us from everywhere: adult students, high school students. We even offer dual enrollment for students in high school taking college classes. We just had the youngest graduate at 14 years old get a degree in cybersecurity.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 18:55
That's really impressive.

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 18:56
Right. So this is what community colleges do. They provide access. And then we also had the oldest student at 77 graduate with a degree in music just last week. So when I get to be the president that gets to represent our community from the youngest graduate to the oldest graduate to international students, this is the type of community and culture I want to build. I want to build a culture that's inclusive. I want to create a culture of excellence where we not only support students, but we support faculty, staff, to be able to say they want to work here because there's a clear vision for this institution. We have a clear vision of what we call persistence, retention, completion, and transfer. We want our students to come here and we want to give them a goal and a plan that works for them. And if they don't want to get a degree, they can get a certificate. There's an opportunity to do so much. And through this type of access, this type of community, we want our faculty to also go study abroad with our students. Like our music faculty with Dr. Parker and Professor Yelgi are going to Spain this summer for a study abroad. So we're a global institution that's committed to our community, but we're also an institution that's committed to our faculty to be able to do innovative things where we empower our students to study abroad. We have 72 countries represented. We have over 400 international students on this campus. So global education is a big part of what we do. And also we have partnerships. We have strong partnerships in Korea, which we had a chance to go to with our professor Mickey Hong, and you know, we have partnerships in Ghana that we're building for Ghanaians to take online classes with us through an organization called A2MEND, which I serve as a board member on. So there's so many unique things that we're doing in terms of partnerships, in terms of collaborations through the A2MEND organization and the project in Ghana, where we take over 400 faculty and staff to a professional conference every two years. And then we have other partnerships where we're trying to create pathways and pipelines with universities, with students so they can come study at LACC, and our students can go study in these countries. So these are the kind of unique things that we're doing that are exciting for me, but are also exciting for our students, our faculty, our community, because we're in Hollywood, you know, we have flagship programs like film, TV, and cinema. We have flagship programs in music, we have flagship programs in business, we have flagship programs in the social sciences, from psychology, sociology, a number of programs, a number of degrees, computer science. We have so much to offer the community, and students are coming to us. And we want to continue to partner with the community in the LA area to ensure that there's access to everyone. And whether you're 14 or 77 or in the middle, LACC is the place for you.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 22:06
That's amazing. And because of that, you guys have such a significant international student population, what does LACC do for international students on campus or off campus that you're most proud of?

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 22:17
Well, the one thing I'm proud of is that we have the type of diversity we have. We have 72 countries represented. And what our fearless leader, Darren Grosh, who I've known for a long time, has done, the one thing I'm proud of is that he's created a community for our international students. Some places they don't even have a space. They don't even have an office. We hire international students. We support international students. We've created a space for them that is a gathering space. We celebrate, you know, their community, religious holidays. We try to be as inclusive as we can when we have international students from abroad. And also we try to make sure that our international students are some of our best students. They come here from wherever they're coming from, focused on transferring, completing a degree. But the most important thing for me is the community we've created and also what they give to our college, their background, their history, their experiences, their teaching people in their classes about their countries, which many of our students have never heard of. Many Americans don't travel abroad. So imagine a student from the UK, a student from Europe, a student from Africa being able to have a relationship with someone where a student can go study abroad. That is what we want to create in terms of that kind of culture, that kind of community, and to continue to build on that. We have 400 students, but I believe that with things being a little tough right now, we're taking the online approach in terms of getting more students to take online classes with us, hopefully from their home countries. And that's part of the partnership with A2MEND that's working with the state chancellor's office, to focus on how do we now get international students who study with us from their home countries. So it's called the Pan-African Virtual College, is what we're creating with the State Chancellor's Office and the A2MEND organization that is committed to global studies. And through A2MEND, we also take 10 students to Africa every summer. We've been to over 10 countries on a fully paid cultural excursion, emergent educational experience for 10 African American males to a country in Africa. We've been to Ethiopia, to Ghana, to Senegal, to Kenya, to Morocco, to Egypt. And that's exciting for our students because once they go, now they want to go back and do their own study abroad. Now they're interested in the global community that they never knew. And now when they go to Africa, they'd be like, man, there's so much richness and so much history that is not shared with these young people.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 24:54
Yeah, it kind of opens their eyes to what else is out there.

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 24:57
Absolutely, because what you learn in the history books is one thing. But also you don't get everything in the history books. You don't get to learn about African excellence and the fact that we come from kingdoms and queendoms, from rich history and background. So when these young men go to the continent and they tell them, welcome home, there isn't the microaggression that exists in these spaces in America. They feel welcome because people look like them, they may not sound like them, they may have an accent, but they feel embraced, they feel supported. And that's the kind of experiences we create through the A2MEND organization that's connected to the community college system. And I'm honored to be able to serve on the board, which I call part of my passion work. My passion work is mentoring young people because I didn't have the same experiences growing up, but I had different experiences. Now I get to shape those experiences for these young people and for all students, young men and women that we support. But the focus of the A2MEND organization is focused on African American male students, which we've seen an increase in graduation rates and transfer rates, because we've created that community for black men who oftentimes are stereotyped to not want to go to college, not graduate. And we have an A2MEND charter at LA City College. And we have these charters at 58 colleges and universities: Tuskegee, Berkeley, Cal State Sacramento, and then 55 plus community colleges to create that community for young black men to pursue their education, to graduate, to transfer, which is in alignment with what we do for all of our students.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 26:43
So what advice would you give to a student who kind of feels uncertain about whether or not they belong in higher education?

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 26:52
I always tell young people, when they say maybe college is not for me, maybe I should just go work. And I believe representation matters, especially for students that look like me. I always tell them you should always go to college. Because, first of all, what you're gonna get from college isn't just a degree. It's a community, it's an experience. It teaches you things that you're not gonna learn on a day-to-day basis. You're gonna learn the critical thinking skills. You're gonna learn to be on time to your 8 a.m. class, which I wasn't good at as a freshman, but it holds you accountable to a process that is different from high school. Because when you go to college, you get to pick your own schedule, you get to choose your schedule of when to go to class, when to go to work. It provides you the ultimate autonomy, but it also helps shape how disciplined you become. Or if you're not, how you find out that you will not do well if you are not focused. So college is the most important thing that I would recommend. It provides you so many elements of growth, maturity, community, and a place where you can develop lifelong friendships. I'm still friends with my friends from college from my freshman year. We went through a journey where we got graduate degrees, where now we're professionals, and having that start has been the most impactful for me because it helped create community for me. So I always recommend to young people go to college. Because I didn't know what to expect, but it was the best thing that happened to me because it created a community that I needed, and I want to encourage all young people, and because we're in a community college system, even adults, to come back. I've had 55, 60-year-old students in my classes when I was a professor teaching, and the diversity that you get in a community college system is different. Because you're gonna learn from international students, adult students, young people, and it's a great atmosphere that could help shape the next part of your journey if you go to grad school or if you go into the work field.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 29:09
Absolutely. The last question I'll do for you is, do you have a student success story or something impactful that still inspires you after all these years in education? Like a student success story that you've never forgotten, someone that really stuck with you, or just something throughout your experience that still inspires you after all these years, something that you think back on, and you're like, wow, that's really inspiring.

Speaker 2 (Dr. Gebru): 29:34
For me, I think I love the work that I do because I'm in a helping profession, I'm in a profession where I get to mentor young people. But I think one of the biggest impacts of my career has been my connection to the A2MEND organization. This is what we call our passion work. This is the work that is beyond inspiring to me because we've helped hundreds and thousands of young African American males focus on getting degrees. And these young people come from similar backgrounds like us, or who are maybe formerly incarcerated, where sometimes college is not the ideal situation. But when they get to connect with a group of board members who have similar backgrounds, similar experiences, who all have doctoral degrees, they get to see hope. They get to see potential that maybe I can be like Dr. Gebru or Dr. Bush or Dr. Foster, because these individuals have a story. So for me, just the work that I've been able to do with mentoring young black men, helping them graduate, helping them transfer, being able to take them to Africa, and seeing them graduate and walk the stage, those are success stories that keep me motivated. Even on days where it's hard, I always tell myself, look at these young people. I've gotten to this point because people helped me. Now it is my obligation and my duty to make sure that this young man who says, you know what, I want to drop out, I'll be like, no, no, no. If I got to be up till midnight helping you figure out whatever you're going through, if I gotta get you a job on campus, if I gotta make sure that I mentor you to steer you in the right direction because you're going through your struggles, I'm committed to doing that. Because someone did it for me in a different way. Now it's my duty through the work we do with the A2MEND organization, through the work we do on campus with the phenomenal leadership team that we've hired, the focus is on students. If it's not for students, then it's for who? And if we don't do it, then who's going to do it for them? So I always, when I walk around campus, I make it a point. No matter how bad my day is or how tough, I tell people I don't have bad days. I walk around here smiling because I'm blessed, because I've made it to this point. And it's important for me to greet young people, greet my colleagues, say good morning. Some of the mentees that I've met, it's when I park my car, I meet somebody and I say, hey, what's your name? Where are you from? And they tell me, and then I'll make them walk with me to my office, and they say, oh, you're the president of the college? And I say, yeah. And I give them my business card. And some students, some young men, I give them my cell phone number. I said, look, I'm not selling anything. I just want to tell you that we have resources, we have opportunities on this campus at LA City College, we have amazing faculty and staff that care about you. I just want to make sure I see you at graduation. So some of them will call me and I tell them, look, we have scholarships. We're building housing. We are building a community that values students. So it's my duty and my job to make sure that I meet every single student and talk to them and also connect them. So, what do you need? Oh, I'm having financial aid issues. Let me walk you over there. Let me introduce you to this person. Let me show you where my office is. If I can do that, then everyone can. And we're never too busy to help students. But also, we've got to make sure we support our faculty and our staff so they understand that level of customer service. Because if someone helped me, then I can help the next person and another faculty member, and the students don't have to look like you for you to say, good morning, how can I help you? You know? It can be anybody. So it's my duty, it's my obligation, it's my commitment to students, but most importantly, this is the life that I chose. I wanted to be an educator, I wanted to help people, people have helped me, so it's my responsibility to continue that: I help the future scholar generation of individuals who will impact the world and change the world. And maybe when I retire, maybe I can work for them as a part-time hustle if they hire me. That's what I tell them. But anyways, yes, this is an amazing place. I just want to say thank you for having me. LA City College is a flagship institution. We are committed to student success, and we continue to do everything we can to build and grow our enrollment across our community. But most importantly, we believe in our students, and we believe in our leadership team that has the same vision. And we are focused on making LA City College an institution that changes lives, transforms students, but most importantly, a space where it's an oasis for learning for anybody that comes to us. When we say we're open access, we accept everybody. So if you want to go to LA City College, we are your home, we're part of your community. And if you're from another country, we welcome them in every way so that they can become part of this culture that we want to contribute to, to create a culture of excellence, a culture of community, a culture where you feel like this is part of your family. So I'm excited to be able to serve LA City College, but most importantly I'm excited to serve our students that hopefully will continue to propel them to their future as scholars, as change makers, and as people that will be mentors to other people as they evolve.

Speaker 1 (Soleil): 35:20
Dr. Gebru, thank you so much for being here and sharing your story. We really, really appreciate your time. And thank you all for listening to International Student Stories brought to you by Study in the USA and Los Angeles City College. And we will see you next time.