Mawi III: Against All Odds

At times, Mawi felt like giving up though.

“I had a lot of bad things happen in my life. My older brother was killed by a drunk driver,” he said. “But nobody can ever stop you from having goals. You’re the one who chooses what you want in life.”

Mawi was in high school, when his brother was killed. He had to make a decision whether to drop out of school because of the pain and anger or honor his brother’s memory by studying hard.

“When things are so dark, you have to have faith and hope that you will see the light, one day,” said Mawi, who decided to work even harder.

Mawi filled out his college applications himself (just like he filled out his family’s welfare paperwork). On top of the application, he added a letter, asking the universities to accept his application even though he did not have the required 50-dollar fee. He ended up being accepted at Harvard University with a full-tuition scholarship.

Mawi graduated cum laude from Harvard and created a speaking business, which has taken him to more than a thousand schools.

The inspirational talk ended with the audience putting their hands over each other’s shoulders and repeating Ethiopian blessing in the language of Tygrinia.

“May you have the brilliance and power of one thousand people.”