Majors: Global Studies, Political Science
Hometown: Sega, Kenya
In 2013, Rosemary came to the United States as a green card immigrant from Kenya. Though her experience moving to the US is important to who she is, she is passionate about showing that she's not defined by her past situations—and about helping fellow Huskers realize this too.
“The idea of refugees has been distorted so much that when we think of refugees, we think of people who are helpless. That’s not the truth. In those refugees, we have artists, doctors, teachers, etc.”
Coming to Nebraska was a challenging adjustment for Rosemary. She often found herself one of the only Black students in the room, but quickly found a community. She now serves as the President of the African Students Association and as an OASIS Peer Mentor, where she dedicates her time to having conversations with mentees about their mental health and plans for the future.
Rosemary says these conversations around mental health aren’t always taking place in BIPOC communities, but she is working to change that by having open discussions about her experiences witnessing hardship.
“Just having those discussions helps us understand how we as a generation are changing a lot of stigmas on mental health and having hard conversations.”
Rosemary hopes that her time as a peer mentor inspires others to be confident in asking for and accepting help, applying for jobs they think they could be rejected from, or even changing their outlook on receiving a bad grade.
“You still see the ‘I can do anything.’ spark in first-year students. It’s my job to make sure my mentees don’t lose that spark. We’re so scared of failing that we don’t even try.”
Rosemary’s goal is to join law school, where she will study human rights law and eventually revisit Kenya to follow her passion of helping others. She is proof that it doesn't matter what you go through, you can redefine any outcome in life.
“I’m not awesome or anything. I just did the best with what I had.”
