I think as I get older, I have more of a hunger for wanting to really learn more about

my family history and my culture and hold on to my language.

And unfortunately, Nuer is not on Rosetta Stone, but maybe it will be one day.

So yeah, I would say like I strive to learn and I think I have a more appreciation for my parents

and my aunts and uncles too, because that's the way I'm going to learn outside of the

no-brainer of moving back home.

That was Nia Boni Gatt, and she says that her immigrant story started 22 years ago.

In 1992, when her parents and older siblings fled from South Sudan and found refuge in Ethiopia,

the second Sudanese civil war was going on between the central Sudanese government and

the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

It was a long and bloody war and it caused 4 million people to be displaced.

Nia Boni doesn't remember much from her childhood.

She knows that she was born in Ethiopia, and she knows that she and her family came to

the United States when she was three or four years old.

Other than that, she's had to rely on stories from her parents and her aunts and her uncles.

Those stories are helpful in understanding her identity, but they're not a perfect substitute.

She says that only personal experience can fill that void.

Today, she works with Alaska's immigrant and refugee community.

She helps them overcome challenges and achieve their goals.

And in that process, she says, they're helping her better understand her background and

herself.

So here she is, Nia Boni Gatt.

...