Starting school at a new college can be nerve-wracking. Signing up for the right classes and then finding them on the first day. The prospect of making friends in a sea of strangers.

Emily Rukundo, 25, knows what that’s like — and then some. She traveled to the United States all the way from Uganda in April 2014 and is now working toward an associate degree in human services technology at Beaufort County Community College.

On top of the usual stresses of college, Rukundo has also had to navigate around the distance from her loved ones and the differences in culture. The task could seem insurmountable to some, but that hasn’t stopped her from successfully pursuing an education.

“It was scary at first. I didn’t know where I was going,” she said. “I was scared before I entered the plane.”

“There is a seven-hour time difference from my family and friends, so that has been a bit hard. But it has been great to gain this exposure and experience,” Rukundo said in a recent news release.

She said she thinks her chosen course of study will be applicable upon her return to Uganda, and she wants to bring the knowledge to provide education and job skills back with her.

“I’m doing human services because I want to help poor kids in Uganda,” she said. “I wanted to help the helpless.”

Rukundo is participating in the college’s work-study program and uses what she learns in the classroom when she tutors children at the Boys & Girls Club of Beaufort County.

“I want to go back home and do something for the kids (in Uganda),” she said in the news release. “There are so many people who have so little.”

According to the release, human services technology “coursework covers a range of topics from counseling and case management to psychology. There is an emphasis on relevant knowledge and skills, often honed during fieldwork as part of BCCC’s Work-Based Learning program.”

Lead instructor Ann Barnes said human services technology covers a wide range of occupations and is a course that is easy to apply to one’s own life, no matter what the situation or what one’s plans may be.

Rukundo said there is an emphasis on education back in Uganda, but many people just don’t have the resources to attend school. To help combat this, she said she is planning to open a shoe factory when she returns home next year, as a means to help some of the kids learn the skills to work there and have a way to make a living.

“It was about faith, maybe,” she said of moving to North Carolina. “Maybe this is an opportunity.”