0:01 every once in a while a story Finds Its
0:03 way to me that puts everything into
0:05 perspective and this is a letter that I
0:07 want to share with you dear Ellen my
0:09 name is ekas Amed I am a refugee from
0:11 Sudan when I came to America 10 years
0:13 ago I didn't speak a word of English on
0:15 my first day of school I got off at the
0:17 wrong bus stop and I was lost for eight
0:19 hours from that day on I made it my
0:21 mission to learn English I stayed after
0:23 school every day with my English teacher
0:25 and I would watch your show and memorize
0:27 what you said write it down and try to
0:29 learn from it with so much negativity in
0:31 the world all I had to do was turn on
0:33 your show and be happy for an hour today
0:35 I'm happy to say I graduated high school
0:36 and college thank you Ellen for being
1:00 ekas [Applause]
1:01 [Applause] [Music]
1:05 [Music] [Applause]
1:12 [Applause]
1:14 oh my
1:20 God hi alas hey hi hi I it's you hi it's
1:22 me how are
1:26 you okay hi hi oh my God you're going to
1:28 have to hold this I'm too tired okay
1:30 okay
1:32 uh thanks for your letter it was a
1:34 beautiful letter thank you so much yeah
1:37 so why did you write it why did you want
1:39 to get that to me I wanted to write it
1:41 because I wanted to let you know how I
1:44 felt I was I was a senior in college and
1:46 I was thinking beside my parents who was
1:49 the person that helped me get get here
1:51 who was that person and I couldn't think
1:53 of anybody except for you wow so I
1:56 decided to write you a letter see well I got
1:57 got
2:00 it so
2:03 your story is is so inspiring I mean you
2:06 live in Maine right I do okay but you
2:09 grew up how long were you in Sudan I was
2:11 in Sudan until the age of 12 until 12
2:13 yes okay and what was it like growing up
2:16 there um oh my God my country is
2:18 beautiful my homeland I lived in Kum
2:21 Sudan growing up I had the most
2:23 beautiful childhood with my friends
2:25 walking to school every morning and just
2:27 being a regular kid that's what I
2:30 remember and then what happened why did
2:33 you leave oh my family had to leave we
2:35 have an issue happening in my country
2:37 maybe you know about the genocide that
2:39 is in their four and it's still
2:42 happening as we speak so my my parents
2:44 wanted a better life for us and they had
2:46 to take us out of there that must have
2:48 been very confusing for you to you
2:50 probably weren't aware of the genocide
2:51 that was going on they just took you out
2:53 to save you exactly my parents didn't
2:56 know what to do but I know every parent
2:58 want safety and they want the best for
3:00 their kids so we had to leave and now
3:02 that I'm older I had to do more of my
3:04 own research to find out why we had to
3:07 go so you watched my show and and you
3:09 just I mean there's other shows on
3:12 television why my show why did I help
3:14 you learn English oh my God because your
3:17 show is the like the funnest show on TV
3:18 and also because we didn't have cable
3:22 actually to be honest we we didn't we
3:24 didn't have cable so we had local
3:26 channels which was great and the Ellen
3:28 show was right at 4:00 and I come from
3:31 school at 3:30 so I had enough time from
3:32 the bus to get home and watch the show I
3:34 think back then I don't know what year
3:36 you started watching me but for a while
3:37 I would walk out and
3:40 go that did you think that was something
3:42 that all Americans
3:47 did no okay my neighbors didn't do that
3:49 yeah yes so I don't know why I went
3:51 through a phase of just doing that for a
3:54 while Shaking All right so now you're uh
3:56 an English teacher yes and you're in
3:59 college getting your master's degree yes
4:02 I I work as a make it happen mentor and
4:04 educator at kesco Bay High School which
4:06 is very beautiful I love my students to
4:10 death I love all of them and I wake up
4:12 every morning with the biggest smile on
4:14 my face because of them yeah that's
4:16 amazing so you love teaching because you
4:18 realize how important it is it is it is
4:20 so important for me to be there for the
4:23 students and for me to be a role model
4:25 for them because when I was their age I
4:27 didn't have someone that was an
4:29 immigrant from African immigrant who
4:32 went through college and graduated and
4:34 didn't speak English but now is in a
4:36 classroom in front of them so I wanted
4:37 to give them that good for you I think
4:39 it's important for everybody to have an
4:43 example you know so all right so you
4:46 made this calendar yes we did and the
4:49 calendar and all the proceeds uh explain
4:50 what the calendar is the calendar is
4:52 called celebrating Africa and my
4:54 students wanted to do something special
4:56 and unique and different to celebrate
4:58 about their culture their beauty where
5:01 they grew up and and I we had pictures
5:02 yeah it's great you get to learn about
5:04 all these different uh places that
5:06 nobody would would really know anything
5:08 about especially beautiful things you
5:10 learn about the beauty of their homes
5:12 yeah so you uh we're going to help you
5:13 we're going to sell this in the Ellen
5:15 shop uh there's your story is amazing
5:17 and there's going to be uh go to our
5:19 website to find out more because there's
5:21 more to her story that I would love you
5:23 to know about um but we're going to sell
5:26 uh these calendars for you to help raise
5:28 money and you're doing you have two jobs
5:30 right now to try to pay off your student
5:32 debt yes so this week Shutterfly has
5:33 been helping us pay off people's debt
5:35 they heard about your inspiring story
5:36 they want to pay off all of your student
5:40 loans with a check for $22,000 oh my [Applause]
5:48 [Applause] God
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