roots effort with a bigger community understanding and provide digital media and trade digital media training and understanding for a group of young people that have all come together under the leadership of the directors of im r t i some of the things that i've been seeing is just interviews and access that him and marty has provided to young people that they would not be able to get on his own in depth coverage of seahawks ome political people  every program under the sun pushed into the high schools pushed into the middle schools young people behind the cameras young people setting up the cameras young people setting up the screening the editing young people getting an understanding right now in present day that it would have taken years to gain or thousands of dollars to get in training so i am just blessed and happy to be a part of this and i look forward to seeing where him r t i and his leadership will take this next generation of young and now i'm honored to introduce our student speaker abe's journey to this stage has been filled with ups and downs like many of his peers he grew up in ethiopia and came by himself to the u s in two thousand and eleven alone with no family members here a has managed to make friends creating connections that he now calls family after getting a full time job aide also started attending shoreline full time in two thousand and twelve he got involved in the heroes program and other student activities here on campus to improve his language skills and to take a leadership role in two thousand and thirteen a bluff his former job and became the heroes program coordinator in addition he co founded the first ethiopian eritrean student association in washington and got involved in other groups including african student club and the black student union is graduating with honors he plans to transfer to the university of washington to pursue his goals now please help me welcome artist my goals my dreams and to be what i wanted to be and three where i wanted to go and that has been the foundation of my life that defines me i was raised in ethiopia alphabet calendar and numbering system proud for accepting christan ity before the western world and islam before the middle east and for being mentioned in bowls the bible in the proud of for being the only african nation that defeated the european power during the colonial era and never colonized and for being the icon of unity and freedom for all african nation whose person when facing challenges and has been through many and downs and has come through it all successfully because of my mother and i started working two main things hard and trying to do my best to hold myself in my community overcome this problems however it wasn't too long when our effort to contribute to our community where perceived as an attempt to go against the system or the the norm since then my safety become a concern for my family and i have believed in and all over the country several times and i got a chance to come to united states in two thousand and eleven and i took it when i boarded the plane to fly it one merica i knew that i'm going to deal with a new language new people new culture new system and that i'm going to miss my family my friends and everything that means a lot to me however i did not realize that i'm going to lose my voice that i used to feel as if i was born a leader and activist was gone however i had a bell my mother's voice ringing in my mind reminding me i should never give up found s e c to be a very welcoming learning environment that provides a quality education i knew then this is the right place to regain my voice  faculty or staff but i'm confident that you share my experience my story you might also have connected to a different might also of taken a different path to get to this stage of your life i believe you are likely to because we graduated today but there are many who are not so lucky people are dying homeless being discriminated against or killed because of their color of their skin or the belief they hold i said this to say because the world it is becoming a dagger as and  because because even if even if you follow the rules you might as we'll be a victim even if you are reasonable and hold that through you may not be given a chance or you may not be here even though you full feel that you are a requirement you may not be hired your efforts is to halt might be considered as an attempt to harm like mine was back home this may not be problems that you have created but there are problems that you live in that you have to live in or solve after leaving n c c whether you are planning to join a more for you creation is not just knowledge but action when thinking about taking action to be part of the change a powerful message comes from one of our wonderful stuff d voluntarily that she sayed the time is always right to be part of the change or do what is right and i say today is the base right time to take right let's do it one more time the time is always right to do art is right so why not you why not oz who makes things right not tomorrow but today they if you haven't already thank you very much  when i was here for a few it was really difficult to really understand how to fit in in america already the fact that it is beginning with the fact that their media was continuously telling me now how bad it n black and so i got to go where i was my all without my mother moved us to seattle from california and ira was going to send me some mentors that let me in the right and so be really knowledgeable about stuff and also the last thing i was a is be a part of this community make sure you read green the other kids that come after us so really be a part of