When Gac Filipaj (pictured above) left war-torn Yugoslavia in 1992 he knew no English.

Filipaj settled in the Bronx, started taking English classes at Theodore Roosevelt High School, got a job as a custodian at Columbia University where he also began taking classes.

This weekend, after 12 years, he will graduate from Columbia with honors:

The dedicated student and worker would go to class in the morning and then do his custodian work from afternoon until night before heading home to the Bronx to study.

One or two classes a semester and 19 years later, his hard work has paid off.

Congratulations Mr. Filipaj.

[ABC News]

 
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Jeff Cormier

Dad, husband, dog lover, law, write at DigitalDeconstruction.com and other online destinations, forever immature. It's the me that I let you know.

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