Andrea Tchinda moved to North Texas from Central Africa just five years ago. "I moved April 11, 2018," she told NBC DFW. "I didn't know how to speak English."
In just five years, she became an Honor student, takes advanced placement and even college courses, and now is on her way to Cambridge.
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Tchinda has received a full-ride scholarship to Harvard. She remembers receiving the email from the school, “I was like, 'hey, Dad, look at this. Harvard is giving to me $86,000!' And we click on 'details' and we saw that everything was covered. Parent contribution, zero!”
Tchinda says her parents left good jobs in Cameroon to give her and her little sisters a chance for a better life in America. "Whenever I think about Harvard, just being able to reward my parents, and just rewarding myself for all the hard work that I've put in," she said.
"All the time that I've prayed, that I've cried, that I thought that I wasn't going to do it, and being able to have this hoodie on, it's just showing me that you did it!"
Once at school, Tchinda is planning on studying computer science. "Everything is possible," she says. "Just bet on yourself!"
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