When Fatima Koko’s family emigrated from Sudan to the United States to escape persecution, she was just 7 years old.

She spoke no English when she started elementary school in Avondale Estates. “It was a major culture shock,” she recalls. “I don’t think I was bullied, but I was aware that they thought I was different.”

Her family is of Nubian descent; the African minority is among many people experiencing ethnic and political persecution in Sudan.

Flash forward 10 years to May 12, when Koko will be receiving her associate degree in psychology from Georgia Perimeter College—and her high school diploma, as a DeKalb Early College Academy student. She will continue her studies as a junior at the University of Georgia this fall.

Koko learned English fast, she says. “I did have some trouble adjusting, because all the kids would be playing outside, and I would be inside, learning how to read and write. My father really emphasized learning the language and didn’t want us to lag behind.”

Koko learned about the DeKalb Early College Academy as a middle schooler and immediately applied when she reached high school age. DECA students study at the academy their first two years of high school and then take classes, which count for both high school and college credit, at Georgia Perimeter’s Clarkston Campus during their junior and senior years.  

While at GPC, she became involved in the Psychology Club, which fueled her interest in the discipline. “I am leaning toward clinical psychology at UGA, but we’ll see,” she says.

Although she was very young when she left Sudan, Koko has developed a passion for helping her disenfranchised countrymen. “I’m a representative in a network of people all over the U.S. who help the people in Sudan by donating money and school supplies,” Koko says.

This summer, she will travel to Ohio. “I’ll be a delegate during a convention—it’s a Nubian cultural event,” she says.

The fourth of seven children, (two brothers and four sisters) Koko frequently cares for her youngest sister, who has Down syndrome. “Although I do have other siblings at home, I have always been the one to help her with the English language,” she says. Koko frequently uses musical lyrics to increase her youngest sibling’s vocabulary.

Recently, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in a special ceremony in downtown Atlanta. “It was a civics lesson,” she says.  

And she was well prepared. An Honors student and Phi Theta Kappa member, she is grateful for her experience at Georgia Perimeter. “I think I’ve built a really good foundation here, and I will be able to transition easily when I get to Georgia.”