21-05-2025
Las Vegas grad working to change the world through equality, environmental justice
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Graduation season is around the corner, and 8 News Now is highlighting great grads from across the Las Vegas valley.
Lena Lemma is trying to become the change she wants to see in the world. She said attending Faith Lutheran has shaped her interests including the arts and STEM.
She's helped lead the school's multicultural club by creating a positive outlook, breaking racial barriers, and hosting a number of events including, food tasting and panel speakers.
'With these events, our main goal is to try to show our students that there are people from every race, every culture that do succeed in these fields,' Lemma stated.
Lemma grew up in Ethiopia for the first six years of her childhood. In 2023, she traveled back to Ethiopia and interned at the National Institute of Education and got involved in the Higher Education Readiness (HER) program by helping young girls in rural Ethiopia pursue higher education.
'The HER program focuses on providing these girls supplies such as school books, mentors and teachers where they can go to school on a regular basis and be stable,' Lemma explained.
She plans to attend the University of Toronto and study environmental chemistry and help improve drought conditions in other countries.
'My main goal in environmental chemistry is to find a way where we can combine modern technology with what we already do have with Indigenous practices that have been working in the past to create ways that these people in these harder situations survive in a more economically friendly way,' Lemma added.
Lemma said focusing on her goals and being able to help others has pushed her to be better every day.
'It does make me proud that I'm getting one step closer each time I move on in my education,' beamed Lemma.
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