By: Joviane Pembele
After a year of strict virtual restrictions on campus, there’s no doubt that students had to pause their extracurriculars in order to keep up with the changing times. To kick off the new school year, a certain individual who has marked many hearts at Parkland with both her kindness and welcoming spirit. 19-year-old Kerene Kombe, a sophomore and Business Administration major. Kombe started attending Parkland College a year ago right after graduating from Centennial High School when the only way to attend school was virtually.
She admits that the minor setback in not getting the chance to be as active around campus sparked her need to be more active in her second and final year at Parkland. “I joined more clubs to see what the school offers and being in these clubs has a ton of benefits. And it was time I made some new friends in college.”
Getting involved in clubs such as Alpha Phi Omega, International Student Association, Parkland’s Bible Study, and Phi Theta Kappa aren’t the only ways in which she has exceeded expectations.
Kombe spends 38 hours biweekly as an employee in the Administration’s office and can always be found helping or translating for fellow and prospective students. Born in Luanda, Angola, she moved to the United States when she was 10 years old.
“America raised me but every day I fight to not lose my culture and my native language,” said Kombe who is now multilingual. “When I moved to the states, I only spoke one language which was Portuguese.” When she started school in the United States, Kombe had to learn a gateway language in order to learn English.
“No one else in the building spoke Portuguese, so I had no choice.” She learned Spanish in Booker T. Washington STEM Academy by an ESL teacher, following her years in middle school in order to learn English. “Throughout the years, I’ve learned English, French, Lingala, and Spanish. My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I can still hold a conversation with someone who is in need of help.” Now being fluent in 5 languages, Kombe plans to contribute to places that will aid in making the world a more stable environment, specifically in the education field.
“Education is one of the things that the less developed countries lack. So, keeping these languages will help me communicate with those in higher places- in order to help.” Kombe’s kind heart can speak for itself especially when it comes to serving communities. From being involved in child orphanages, making selfless contributions, offering money to anyone in need, and helping feed people in between homes, Kombe knows what it means to give.
“Last week at Portillos when I went to get Plamedia (Kombe’s sister), a homeless man approached me saying that he was hungry. We went inside the restaurant and I told him to order whatever he wanted and I paid for it.” A kindness like this is to be celebrated especially since it’s getting rarer as times grow difficult. When acclaimed, Kerene calmly responded “I don’t do it for recognition. When I see others in need and I have it, I help.”
It appears Kombe occupies more than 24 hours in a day; taking 14 credits this semester and preparing for her transfer to Illinois State University in the fall of 2022, after recently receiving an email confirming her acceptance to ISU where she will be majoring in either Marketing or Economics.
“I’m very excited to begin this new journey after Parkland. I’m going to have to grow up and become more responsible. It’s scary thinking about it, yet I am happy.” Kombe has lived in the Champaign-Urbana region since she first moved to the United States and was given the chance to not have to worry about tuition in college due to her hard work which resulted in various scholarships. She has been awarded with well over 10 hefty scholarships such as the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, the Dr. Martin Luther King foundation, the Frank and Priscilla Hettler, the Academic Opportunity for Underrepresented Students, and the Business Administrative Technology, just to name a few.
Kombe stays motivated to accomplish all of these attributes by keeping her goals aligned. She leads by faith and not by sight. “As a Christian girl, what God has called me to do makes me take education seriously, because through it that’s how I’m going to reach the places I’m meant to reach.” As a Christian, Kombe shared a verse in which she abides by every day and some lasting words of advice to the student body “A verse I live by is, ‘Let everything you do be done in love.’ The world needs to learn to love one another more and when love abounds in our hearts, that’s when things change.”
Now that campus is open again, Prospectus would love to honor and celebrate YOU as a student. To enter and become a potentially celebrated Student of the Month, feel free to contact JPembele1@stu.parkland.edu or Prospectus.