4 years after {a photograph} of her learning beside a roadside fruit stall went viral, Amina Uwikuzo has graduated from secondary college and is getting ready to start college in January 2027.
When Uwikuzo welcomed us into her house in Rwampara, Gikondo, she was not the younger pupil we first met in 2022, struggling to stability schoolwork with promoting fruit by the roadside.
On the time, {a photograph} of her learning whereas promoting fruit attracted widespread consideration, highlighting her dedication to stay in class regardless of monetary difficulties.
The publicity finally earned her a full scholarship to Rwamagana Leaders' College, the place she studied from Senior 4 to Senior Six.
Now, having graduated, Uwikuzo is trying ahead to the subsequent chapter of her life.
“I really feel nice. I really feel so good. It's wonderful to me to graduate, you already know. It was my dream to finish up with my secondary college,” she says, smiling as she displays on her journey.
ALSO READ: Meet 18-year-old Uwikuzo, the fruit vendor who impressed many
However reaching this milestone was not with out challenges.
Adjusting to a brand new studying surroundings
When Uwikuzo joined Rwamagana Leaders' College in 2022, she discovered herself in an unfamiliar studying surroundings.
Having accomplished Senior Three at Groupe Scolaire Mburabuturo, she needed to regulate to totally different tutorial expectations. One in every of her largest challenges was English.
“I keep in mind the primary day I reached Rwamagana Leaders' College, I reached the category. The primary pupil greeted me in French. I stated, “my goodness, what is that this?” she remembers with fun.
Her classmates and lecturers helped her settle in, and he or she regularly turned extra comfy.
When The New Instances visited her on the college in 2023, Uwikuzo recognized English as one in every of her largest tutorial challenges.
She significantly remembers the issue of creating classroom shows in English.
“It was robust for me to face and say, 'I need to current to you,'” she says.
“At first, I used to be not capable of stand in entrance of individuals and say one thing. I used to be undecided of myself, however now I attempt my greatest.”
Past the classroom
For Uwikuzo, her time at Rwamagana Leaders' College was about greater than tutorial achievement.
She says the college helped her develop management expertise, grow to be extra unbiased and take higher duty for her life.
“At Rwamagana Leaders' College, they educate us to be accountable and take initiatives,” she says.
Throughout her time on the college, Uwikuzo served as a choir chief and was actively concerned in sharing the phrase of God along with her fellow college students, actions she says helped construct her confidence.
WATCH: 18-year-old Amina Uwikuzo on balancing research and dealing as a fruit vendor
She additionally participated in different college actions, together with producing {a magazine}, and took on tasks that required her to work together with fellow college students.
These experiences, she says, have formed how she approaches life outdoors college.
“I keep right here at house and I do issues I’m purported to do with out any individual telling me, 'Do that, do that.' No. I do that for myself,” she says.
“I’ve to take duty. I stated, I can do that with out Mum or one other individual telling me. I do it myself. And it's my life, you already know. I grow to be the proprietor of my life.”
The {photograph} that modified her life
Uwikuzo nonetheless remembers the circumstances surrounding the {photograph} that introduced her story to nationwide consideration.
She was getting ready for examinations whereas promoting fruit when social media influencer Tito Harerimana observed her and took a video.
Harerimana later visited her house and defined that he needed to take pictures and presumably join her with journalists who might inform her story.
“I stated, why not?” she remembers.
A sequence of media interviews adopted, bringing her circumstances to the eye of a wider viewers.
In Could 2022, The New Instances reported that the {photograph} had prompted Moses Ssenyonjo, director of Rwamagana Leaders' College, to supply Uwikuzo a full-board scholarship overlaying her research from Senior 4 to Senior Six.
Trying again, Uwikuzo believes the occasions that adopted the {photograph} weren’t a coincidence.
“All issues that occur, they’ve a motive,” she says.
“Why did somebody take that video? And after that, many issues occurred and many individuals got here to know extra about me.”
College schooling subsequent
Having graduated from secondary college, Uwikuzo is getting ready to start her college schooling in January 2027.
She presently works as a custodian at an organization in Kigali and needed to search permission from her employer to depart work briefly for the interview.
ALSO READ: I cannot let the college down: 18-year-old fruit vendor celebrates totally funded scholarship
Though she is incomes a residing, furthering her schooling stays a precedence.
“I plan to hitch a college as quickly as potential,” she says.
Past college, Uwikuzo can also be all for entrepreneurship and hopes to determine her personal enterprise in the future.
“My goodness, enterprise is my want. I really feel good once I begin a enterprise,” she says.
“I need to proceed to pursue my ardour for enterprise.”
For now, she is balancing employment with preparations for college, decided to construct on the tutorial alternative that reworked her life 4 years in the past.
Her message to younger folks
Having skilled monetary difficulties and the challenges of balancing college with work, Uwikuzo believes younger folks shouldn’t permit their circumstances or the opinions of others to discourage them from pursuing their targets.
“It’s important to research even whether it is onerous,” she says.
She additionally urges younger folks to keep away from medicine and different selections that would undermine their future.
“Please, younger technology, my associates, don't disappoint your mother and father and society as a result of, after all, our choices will make our future,” she says.
“Let's make good choices and get a greater future.”
A brand new chapter
Uwikuzo is the fourth-born in a household of six youngsters. Her father died in 2019, leaving her mom, Marciana Mujawimana, to boost the youngsters.
The scholarship she acquired in 2022 eased the monetary burden of her schooling and allowed her to focus on her research. Her mom additionally acquired assist that helped her set up a fruit and vegetable enterprise.
Now, as Uwikuzo prepares for college, her ambitions prolong past the achievement that first introduced her into the general public eye.
“Life has many paths. It’s possible you’ll not even know what’s the approach you’ll be able to cross by, however by no means hand over. Comply with your ardour,” she says.
4 years after {a photograph} of her learning beside a roadside fruit stall captured nationwide consideration, Uwikuzo has accomplished secondary college, secured employment and is getting ready to pursue increased schooling.
WATCH: One 12 months later, former fruit vendor Uwikuzo revels in her life-changing tutorial journey
The roadside fruit stall that after outlined her public story is now a part of her previous. Her subsequent chapter shall be one in every of college schooling and the pursuit of her entrepreneurial ambitions.
