DANAIT TESFAYE has a gentle yet powerful presence.

Her body is small, and her features are delicate — except for her eyes, which are big, dark and knowing.

She speaks with perfect pronunciation and a confident pitch, and she listens to questions and explanations without a hint of fidgeting or jumpiness common in teenagers.

She seems shaken only when we talk about her father, a former Ethiopian politician who was imprisoned during the country’s civil war.

“I miss my dad,” she says, eyes shifting downward.

Through some long pauses and tears, she says that when her family lived in Ethiopia in the 1990s, a new government imprisoned her dad, Haile-Leul Eyakem, along with many other politicians, leaving her mom, Sisaynesh Beda, to raise Tesfaye and her brother, Abiy.

In 2006, the three moved to the U.S., leaving her father behind.

“At first, I was excited. We all knew about the American dream. We thought that’s how it would be here — a dream come true.”

Instead, her first couple years in Lake Highlands were a nightmare. She experienced culture shock, was hurting over the extended separation from her father, and was plagued by loneliness and fear in an unfamiliar environment.

“I was in eighth grade, and I knew no English. It was so hard. I would talk to my dad on the phone, and I cried so much every time.”

And life was different here, she says. Take snow, for example.

“The first time it snowed here, I was in shock. I knew about snow, but I had never seen it before.”

By the time she entered ninth grade, she says, her English had improved, but she still felt painfully shy. Other students made fun of her speech and, until she joined the AVID club, she was still insecure.

“AVID is where I started to gain confidence. I felt welcome and made friends. They praised my English and gave me confidence, and it continued to improve.”

The American school system is different from that in Ethiopia, and Tesfaye says it wasn’t until she joined AVID that she understood how it worked.

“The AVID teachers became like second parents to us. I wouldn’t be here if not for them,” she says.

AVID coordinator Corrie Myers recalls that shyness from the first year she met Tesfaye.

“She was very quiet, very hard-working. She would basically hide in the back of the room,” Myers says. “But there was always something about her. I have seen her blossom — now, I see her in the hall with groups of friends, and it makes me smile.”

As Tesfaye worked her way through LHHS, she became involved in math, science, pre-health and multicultural clubs she is an officer of the Africa Club — and student council.

She will enter Texas Women’s University in the fall. She is a legal resident of the United States and is working toward citizenship status.

Today when Tesfaye sees other students struggling with issues she has faced, she tries to help them.

“I advise them to be strong and to not give up. You can’t go back,” she says. “I tell them not to be afraid to speak — if people laugh at you, laugh with them.”

Her family is anticipating her graduation.

“My mom is excited, but she doesn’t want me to go too far away.”

When her father learned she had been accepted to the university, he was impressed, she says. Her tears well up again.

“He just said, ‘wow’. He says he’s proud of me.”

For two and a half years, she lived in Malaysia, hiding in a small house with 19 fellow refugees that included her own family of seven.

When she was 17, Lang says she and her family fled religious persecution in Burma. Before they could move on to a new life, they had to be recorded as legal refugees. During the process, which took about 32 months, they were forced into hiding.

Despite being in an uncomfortable, uncertain and often frightening situation, the teenager was irreversibly optimistic. While in limbo, Lang began to teach herself English by reading books.

“I knew America was the land of opportunity,” she says. “I wanted to be a pediatrician.

In my [original] country, even if you were smart, you can’t go to school unless you have money and a [certain status]. But now, I would get the chance.”

Nothing would stop her from taking advantage of the opportunity.

When she arrived at Lake Highlands High School, she understood English but didn’t speak it well. Counselors, as is policy, placed her in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

She says she fought them tooth and nail.

“I had many, many conversations with the counselors; I was supposed to be in ESL for two years, but I finally got into regular classes.”

From there, she says, she pushed herself hard enough to make the most of high school, enrolling in all Advanced Placement classes.

“I had to work harder than most, I think. I had to constantly study the dictionary.”

Myers says Lang tracked her down, determined to take advantage of the AVID program.

“She sought me out,” Myers says. “She is extremely motivated.”

Lang is a finalist for a highly competitive Dell Scholarship — she would be the first LHHS student to receive the honor.

One of the most exciting days of her life in America, she says, was receiving the Lake Highlands Exchange Club’s Character Counts award.

“Everyone said it was the best award you could get in Lake Highlands. My family came — I was so happy.”

She still ponders the vast difference between her Burma origins and her life here, where she lives with her brothers, sisters and parents at Newport Landing Apartments.

“There, we had no cars, no electricity, no cooking. The government didn’t support education. In schools, there was physical punishment, and people paid money to pass tests.”

Months ago, she began frantically filling out every college scholarship application she could find — dozens upon dozens of them. At the time of our interview she was waiting to hear what she might receive.

“I applied for all of the scholarships in the counselors’ office. Where I go to school will depend on the scholarship, but my first choice is Baylor.”

“I wanted to look nice for you guys,” he says, firmly shaking the Advocate photographer’s hand. “It’s my dad’s suit.”

Back when he was young and naïve — ninth grade — he wore sagging pants, he says.

“I regret the way I acted during ninth and some of 10th grades. I let my grades drop. When I started thinking about college, my attitude started to change, and I started dressing differently.”

Today, he’s the vice president of the Africa Club and Mu Alpha Theta and is president of the UIL Science Club. He has a 3.4 GPA (at the time of our March interview), and he’s a cross country and track star. He won the Lake Highlands Exchange Club’s Character Counts award. He’s on course to attend college at the University of North Texas, Oklahoma State or Baylor University, where he will study aerospace engineering. He has good friends, and he speaks English eloquently.

But the road to this place took some detours.

Until 2006, Tamene lived in Ethiopia with two siblings and his grandparents. His father, a member of the Ethiopian Army, was arrested and only narrowly escaped death. His father in 1998 was allowed to move to the U.S. after being offered a diversity immigrant visa, granted by the Department of State to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. Tamene eventually joined his father here. He never knew his mother, he says.

His early days at Forest Meadow Junior High were some of the worst of his life, he says.

“I hated school. I didn’t speak English at all. I was made fun of for the way I talked. I didn’t want to go to school. I just can’t describe how bad I felt,” he says.

When he moved to the Lake Highlands Freshman Center, he desperately wanted to fit in. He wanted to be a part of a team. So he joined the football team.

“That was a bad decision,” he says, laughing heartily and shaking his head. Football was physically tough and confusing for the thin ninth grader.

“I didn’t know the plays; I sat on the sideline all season,” he says. “It was miserable, so next I tried soccer.” At the time, he says, he didn’t care about school. He just wanted some friends and to be involved in something.

“In 10th grade, the track coach asked me to start running. I hated running. On the first day, some of the girls continued on page 41

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continued from even beat me,” he says, still smiling.

But he continued to improve. “Running changed me,” he says.

He still struggled in school.

“It was hard at home. There were five of us living in a two-bedroom apartment, and it was hard to study. I started to give up. I failed classes in 10th grade.”

But then AVID coordinator Corrie Myers noticed him. Even in a crowded reading class, Tamene stood out.

When the kids finished their work, most of them chit-chatted with one another — not Tamene.

“He sat next to a bookshelf crammed with random sundry titles, and when he finished working, he reached back and grabbed a book,” Myers says. “Sometimes he would come up and ask to borrow one, but he mostly sat quietly and read.”

Tamene says he might have just been waiting for someone to notice him.

“When I realized she thought I was smart, it felt good. I wanted to impress her,” he says. “I didn’t even know what an AP class was, but Ms. Myers said I had to enroll in them if I wanted to join AVID.”