Long road from Sudan to graduation

By JENN MENENDEZ, Staff Writer

Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by Jack Milton Athien Majok, 20, is the first in his family to graduate from high school. He'll attend Husson College this fall, where he'll be playing football.
	GRADUATIONS Read more profiles of outstanding high school seniors in the Graduations section. COMING JUNE 25 The Graduations section will include listings of 2003 graduates from southern Maine schools. The listings also will honor the top grads and award winners in each school. The listings will be available only online June 25. To top of story

Clutching his gown and mortarboard wrapped neatly in plastic, Athian Majok reveals a luminescent and contagious smile.

He has just left marching practice for graduation. His pride overflows.

Majok left a civil war behind in his native Sudan at 14, beginning a six-year, five-school journey that brought him to Portland High School. Last week he was the first of his six brothers and sisters to graduate. And in the fall he will attend Husson College to play football - a sport he had never even heard of as a boy in Africa.

"My mom is proud of me. My sisters and brothers are happy. When they see me, they want to go and do the same thing I did," said Majok, 20. "They can't wait to see me wearing that uniform on graduation day."

Majok left Sudan and moved to Egypt with his brothers and sisters six years ago. His mother and father stayed behind. Majok then traveled to Atlanta, to Iowa with an aunt, then back to Atlanta before coming to Maine halfway through his junior year. His mother now lives with the family, and his father is in Sudan.

He found the many moves trying.

"It's kind of hard. I have to move and you have to meet new people," Majok said.

When he arrived in Portland, Majok joined the mentoring program at the high school to ease his transition. He also joined the football team.

The game was new to him. Growing up in Africa, he played soccer with his friends, and he was not introduced to football until he saw it on television in Egypt. He saw his first pad-crashing game live at high school in Georgia.

"It is an interesting game," Majok said. "It's why I want to keep playing it."

At Portland, Majok played defensive end and special teams.

"They put me in a practice first and started showing me how to play," said Majok. "After that, they started putting me in games."

In the fall, Majok will enter Husson with his major undecided, but he thinks he may study nursing. He already speaks three languages: Arabic, Dinka (the language of Sudan) and English.

Whatever studies he pursues, graduating, he said, has given him confidence that he will succeed.

"That I can do anything that I try," Majok said. "I can do anything that comes my way."

- Jenn Menendez

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