When Lambert Ngenzi moved to Kent with his mom and four siblings, he was weeks shy of graduating from high school in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But Ngenzi never got the chance to take his final exams and graduate.

“If you pass, you can go to university,” Ngenzi said of the exams. “I didn’t have time to do it.”

Two years later, the 20-year-old stands tall as a high school graduate. He receives his diploma at Kent-Meridian High School’s commencement ceremony Saturday.

“Two years before, when I was coming here, I can’t see myself graduating,” he recalled.

Ngenzi’s parents fled to Congo from their native Rwanda before Ngenzi was born in 1994 to escape genocide in the country.

“My mom asked for a statute of refugee for any country,” Ngenzi said. “We were lucky to get to the USA.”

A nonprofit organization helped the family settle in Kent.

Ngenzi almost didn’t get to realize his dream of graduating from high school.

“According to (the nonprofit organization), when you are 18 and you are living with a single mom, you can’t go to high school,” he said. “You have to get a job and go to ESL (English as a Second Language) classes at Highline or (another) community college.”

Ngenzi and his older brother enrolled at Highline, but it wasn’t the right fit for Ngenzi.

“I just didn’t like the atmosphere of learning English and going to work,” he said. “I didn’t feel (like) myself.”

He convinced the organization to let him attend high school.

Ngenzi started at Kent-Meridian in the fall of 2013, but it took time to adjust to the American school system. At 18, Ngenzi was older than most of his classmates.

“They thought I was a teacher … and they (would) say, ‘How old are you?’ and I have to say, ‘I am 18,'” Ngenzi said. “It was a little bit weird.”

He also had to get used to moving from class to class. In the Congo, students stay in one classroom and the teachers rotate.

“I stayed after the bell rings,” Ngenzi said. “I was like, ‘OK, where’s the second teacher?’ and I wait and wait. My teacher was like, ‘You have to move (to another classroom).'”

Ngenzi started at Kent-Meridian as a sophomore, but once the school received his transcripts from the Congo he was elevated to a senior.

He spent one semester in ELL (English Language Learners), where his teacher, Sam Susan, helped him greatly.

“He was the one who used to stay after school until like 5-6 p.m. to work with me,” Ngenzi said.

Ngenzi took two English classes per year in order to meet graduation requirements and also enrolled in several International Baccalaureate and college-level courses.

Ngenzi is grateful to his friends, family and teachers for helping him succeed.

“I should say congratulations to everybody,” he said. “Everybody contributed to who I am right now.”

He is especially grateful to his mom, Jeanne D’arc.

“She wants us to concentrate on school, so I saw that she is the one who realized that dream to be real. She is happy to be a big part of it.”

He hopes graduating from high school will inspire others, especially his three younger siblings.

“It is meaningful for my family, even for my community, to represent my family, my country and who I am, too,” he said. “I am trying just to give them an example. I think that when they saw me getting those kind of things, going to college, being the first one to go to a four-year university in the family, maybe (it will) inspire them.”

Ngenzi plans to attend Washington State University in the fall and study environmental science.

Last summer, Ngenzi interned with King County to learn about water quality. The internship persuaded him to try environmental science.

Ngenzi isn’t sure what he wants to do after college.

“I can maybe work internationally or help people. I am open to everything,” he said.

Ngenzi has another summer internship lined up with the county and also plans to teach French, the official language of the Congo, for an international company.