Lancaster PA:Take Antonella Murkuria: She wants to be a nurse so she can help people in her native Kenya.
Murkuria joined her husband in Lancaster in 2010, bringing their three sons with her. He came here in 2003 and works as a nurse at Garden Spot Village in New Holland.
She has a job making chapati, samosas and other items for the Rafiki African food stand in Central Market and also sells her homemade jewelry on the side.
Since the spring of 2013, Murkuria has spent hundreds of hours in GED classes at CareerLink. She has yet to pass any of the four sections. She said she’s concentrating on the math and came close to passing it — just seven points shy.
Most of the math is new to her. In Kenya, she ended her education after eighth grade because high school cost money and she couldn’t afford it, she said.
Murkuria is soft-spoken. Besides English, which she learned at school in Kenya, she speaks three African languages: Swahili, Turkana and her native Samburu.
She studies her GED material several hours a day, late at night and early in the morning. Her aim is to pass all four sections this year.
Her advice to students like herself?
“Concentrate and take your time,” she said. “Focus on what you want to do.”
-lancasteronline.com
