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Berry Mwamba 6317 Derita Woods Ct Charlotte, NC 28269 bmwamba@uncc.edu, 704-492-1303

March 20, 2014

To the Awards Committee University of North Carolina at Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd Charlotte, NC 28223

Selection Awards Committee,

In December 2012, I graduated in Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina. Right now, I am working on my second bachelor with an expected degree in English, concentrating in writing. Through my Accelerated College Writing and Rhetorics professor, I learned about the first Writing Competition organized by the UNC Charlotte Writing Resources Center, and after a full reflection, as well as the fact of sharing my story, I am motivated to send my writing to compete for the Academic Best Piece. My writing piece highlights the sacrifices incurred and the resoluteness that was mine in the achievement of my academic dream. Starting by my first bachelor in Law, the second in Criminal Justice, and then the upcoming in English, the price paid and what has to be paid, are the focus of my writing piece. Starting as a class project about literacy, the piece illustrates how important is to be academically literate to succeed in life, how hard work and sacrifice help in that path, and how sponsors play a

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decisive role in the realization of that objective especially where the access to an academic literacy is not always granted and accessible to everybody. The first part of this piece takes place in the Democratic Republic of Congo while the second and third parts are taking place in the United States. The role of family is amplified in the writing to assert the theory about the positive influence of the parents on the children and the one of the self-support, the choice of the vocabulary is wanted to make the reader the most connected to story, and the citations underlined come as a support to resume the main idea of the piece. This is not a fiction story but a real one; writing sometimes with tears and recall of a difficult time, and intended to motivate the writer about the academic literacy and his path which one is not always easy. Hoping that my writing piece will draw your attention, I wish you, members of the Award Committee, the best.

Thank you,

Berry M. Mwamba

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Berry Mwamba Professor Rebecca Agosta English 1103 March 12, 2014 Achievement: A Road of Sacrifice and Perseverance

Overview

Africa has a family culture of a father giving advice to his children by sitting with them every time that he has the opportunity to do so. Usually, that kind of meeting is organized at nightfall, around firewood, if you are in the village, in a tender and inspiring breeze blowing in a neighborhood where everything is shut down once the darkness comes, or around a table if living in a city. Lifes guidelines come always from old narrations and anecdotes passing from generation to another by storytelling. Those stories are related to the tribe that you come from. Father did not shirk tradition; on the contrary, he organized those families reunions often. Sitting down with him, he narrated stories about his childhood and about our tribe customs but also the one about his academic achievement, which one was fascinated by his path: from his high school in a Catholic school to his bachelor degree at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and then from his career at the Central Bank of Congo/Kinshasa to the top job of Director of the Kinshasa Banka private bank from the 1970s always in the Democratic Republic of Congo that reached his apogee in the 1980s. Over and over, father never stopped repeating the same stories every time that he got the opportunity to do so, until we understood that: sacrifice and perseverance were the only way to the achievement of your

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dreams. Model of my life, I made him proud of me when I achieved in 2012 my second bachelor in Criminal Justice in the United States.

First Bachelor

As every kid, I had dreams. Dreams about what I will become in my adulthood. The biggest one was to become Engineer in Agronomy because things such as plant, flower, foods, and farm were my favorite obsession and devotion. Unfortunately, I ended up by being a lawyer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, my country. Everything started after I was not allowed to start over my first year in my major, Agronomy, after my first failed attempt. In fact, in the academic system in Congo, a student with a failure of grade F must wait two consecutives academic yearsone academic year equal to 9 months of classbefore coming back to the same major. I failed because I was distracted by what my father called: the first year of freedom. After being under parental control for eighteen years, going to college has always been as a symbol of freedom: nobody to tell you what to do, no one to tell you when you should be home, first time to drink alcohol, first time to date or smoke, in general first time to do anything. That is when many new students failed in college. Unfortunately, I was one of them. I was going to the campus but was not present in class. On the week day, I was partying with friends and girls, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes. Distraction was the main word to describe all my behaviors. In order to find another school for me, my father wanted to know what could be my second major choice. I told him that I wanted to be a lawyer. Law school? he replied, Interesting, we can do that. You have the charisma for it. he added. Then he told me something

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that would change everything in my life, you are a smart boy; I know that you have been distracted by your first year of freedom; though I advised so. But if you can get back on yourself, you can make the difference. I was ashamed of myself about my failure and then I started to apologize about my behavior and my failure when, touching my shoulder with his both hands, he said to me that, failure gives to a wise person the chance to see where he made mistake, the strength to fix it, and then the courage to move on. Then he concluded by saying, I trust in you and I know you can do better, son. But you have to pay the price. At those words, I felt revitalized and since then I took seriously everything and in 2006 I graduated from the Law school. But that result did not come without pain.

Sacrifice and Perseverance

After I failed in my agronomy major, my father retired from his job with almost no money to cover my tuitions and others expenses related to my school. The economical and political situation of my country did not facilitate things too; in fact, because of his connection with the dictatorship power of the MobutuPresident of the DRC from 1965-1997my father had lost everything with the change of power occurred in 1997. The fact of walking to school became a lifestyle; I could remember walking about 25 miles back and forth from my house to school. Also I could remember lacking money to pay my tuition for some years, going to my brothers, uncles, aunts, even friends asking for money. It took me about 10 years to graduate from law school while I got my high school diploma in 1997. I was the second of my family to achieve a high academic degree.

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Marcel was the name of my brotherthe fourth of a family of seven, who was the first to get his bachelor degree. He got a good job, well paid, and was living in his own apartment. He was the one who paid almost all my tuitions and others expenses; also he was the one who was motivating me to keep going with my academic education because it will pay one day. I will not say that getting money from him was easy part of my life; I could see his face when he had to give me money, the one of someone saying: dont come back again. I remember crying on my way back home or in my bedroom because of it. Even if I decided to never go back for asking money I always did. I did not have a choice. Later I understood that it was not his fault. He was the only one taking care of everybody. I was not the only one asking him for money; in fact all my family was doing it. Later I found out that he was giving every month the third of his salary to us, his family, for our food, our bills, and the tuitions of everyone in school. He did that sacrifice until the last one of us graduate from college. For me today, I think that he did the best he could to help us. Beside my father who supports me from my baby step to my entry to college, Marcel was the one who took over that responsibility and finished it but also he is an example to follow and a hero. My father and him were proud of me on that day when the chancellor of the Protestant University of Congo (U.P.C) called my name among those who excelledthose who finished with a grade A. My first bachelor degree was a dream becoming true but also the result of a child obedient to the advices of his father. On that day, my father said to me: that was the most beautiful gift I gave to him. This is one on the most popular passage from Franois Mauriac used by my father: Our Life is worth the effort it cost. Thank you Daddy; thank you Marcel.

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Second Bachelor After practicing law in the Democratic Republic of Congo for three years, my wife and I got the opportunity to move to the United States. Charlotte, North Carolina, was the city we picked because of my sister who was living there since 2002. Because of the difference of the law between what I took in Congo (romano-germanic law) and the one practicing in the United States (common law) and because I was not speaking English, French contrariwise, I had to have a plan to succeed. First: learning the language of the land. Central Piedmont Community College was the institution that helped me to achieve that goal. Starting with the program of English as a Second Language (ESL) and ending with the English as a foreign language (EFL), I have seen my English, speaking and writing, improve. Second: Becoming accustomed with the American Justice System. For that, graduating in Criminal Justice was necessary. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte was the institution helping me to achieve that goal. To do so, one price had to be paid: the challenge of being student, parent, husband, and family provider.

Challenges

As a student, I had to be in class every day from Monday through Thursday, studying and doing my homework between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. on those days while my first class started around 9 a.m. As a father, I had to be home around 5 p.m. try to help my wife who was at that time pregnant with our second baby. Taking care of the crying baby, diaper changing, and other

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household work was another part of my routine life. I was always going to bed tired. Speaking of the bed, it was a queen, supposed to be just for my wife and me, but that was not the case. In the middle of the night, our first boy was already there, slipping between us, leaving his own bed alone. I dont know how we were able to sleep like that until the second child was born. As a husband, I had to be there for my wife. I tried to break our life routine by taking her out, usually on Sundays. Restaurants, parks, or our friends houses were the places we went. She always enjoyed it. And as a family provider, I had to provide money to pay bills and other expenses. The fact of being a Taxi driver was definitively the best choice for me because of the flexibility of the schedule, the particularity of the jobalways busy on the weekends, the independent character of it. I was self-employed, which allows you to relax, make friends, meet new people, to practice English speaking with customers, and not be laid-off by anyone. I was driving every Friday morning from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., and then the afternoon from 5 p.m. until the next day at 9 a.m. To end my shift, I would start again around 4 p.m. on Saturday to end it the next day around maybe 11 or 12 a.m. No one would ever know how difficult it was, except maybe those who were doing the same job and schedule as me. Describing it will not be good enough for you to feel it. Keeping conversation on the phone with friends, drinking coffee, soda, and 5 Hour Energy, eating fast food when hungry, and sleeping in the different parking lot when tired and sleepy, were good to keep me up until the end of my shift. Those shifts were not imposed on me because I was a self-employer. Contrariwise, I chose them because I needed the money. I was not just a family-provider for close family but also for my biological family that stayed in Congo. No one can deny the dependency of those who are in Africa on those who are in the western countries, especially here in the United States. I had to send money every month for health care, food, clothes and others expenses. My parents were over 70 years old and they

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need a special medical attention; my brother, the one who comes just after me, had to go to school. Consequently I had to pay his tuition and other expenses related to it. I had cousins, nephews, uncles, or friends who always call to ask for something. My wifes family also called to ask for money. My wife had 4 sisters and 2 brothers who were going to school. She had to do something for them too. But because she was not working at that time, I was the only who could help. Truly, I dont know how I was able to combine all those responsibilities. I really dont know. Maybe it is because I trusted God, so he gave me the strength to do it. All I know is that I did it.

Graduating in English Writing

The upcoming challenge of being lawyer and the necessity of sharing a painful course for glory ending have motivated me to take up on the English major. How many times I would like to be born in the United States and have English as my first language; maybe things would be easier. How many times I have to look into dictionary or google it before understanding the sense of an English word to be sure about what I am saying or writing about. Are you sure about that thought I asked myself. No, absolutely no I answered back by shaking my head. Renouncing on my first language, which one is French, will be a synonym of renouncing to my passed, my story, my culture, and my identity as an African man who moved in the United States seeking a new challenge. No, absolutely no I added to my reflection while walking along the hall of the second floor of the Fretwell building. I would never regret it I concluded. Actually English is my fifth language. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, French is the official language. You speak French at school and at work. The fact of speaking French, in

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Congo, is a synonym of a good education. Educated families always speak French and especially when they are at home. It is more speaking at the expense of others national languages such as Lingala, Kikongo, Tshiluba, and Swayili. I speak Lingala because it is the Congolese local language. Besides the fact that almost everybody speaks French, Lingala is also spoken by the majority of the Congolese people. I can understand and barely speak Tshiluba and Swayili. I know them because of my parents. They come from two different provinces where those languages are their main dialect. The fanny part in my path as student at UNCC is that my notes were taking with a mixing of French, Lingala, and English. Giving them if asked to a classmate was impossible because I was the only one able to read it. Now it is better; I take note only in English and I can sit down and spend long hours writing down essays in English. The fact of being in the English major is more about the love of a new homeland, new culture, new challenge, and new dream. But it is also about legacy. I want to share my story to those think that it is impossible to make it in America. It is easy to move in America as a child because you can catch up easily with the language. But it is not when you are celebrating your twenty eighteenth birthday for the first time in the Unites States. A man understood that challenge; by his speeches he defies me, my dream, and my reality as an immigrant. Every time he has spoken about dream and challenge he always said: it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight! If you work hard you can make it here in AmericaBarack Obama. Yes Mister Obama, you are right.