My name is Simeon. I'm originally from Ethiopia, and now I live in Cincinnati. This is a picture from my college graduation day. I'm dressed in my gown and have my diploma in hand and smiling. I’m very much happy at this moment.

I picked this picture because education, especially coming from Ethiopia, is a huge thing. I didn't start school until I was, like, nine years old. Once I started, that was the thing that gave me a drive and a dream. In Ethiopia, it is seen as your way out of your whatever life situation you're in. I value education, and I actually graduated to become a teacher. This means a lot to me, because I made it through adoption, I was able to make it out of where I was in Ethiopia.  

I believe I am the first person in my family, my Ethiopian family, to have gotten where I am, to graduate. But this is for myself. My birth mom was an orphan, and so this feels like where I'm gonna change that trajectory. It starts here.