The EthnoMed Podcast

Provider Pulse Ep. 14: In the Shadow of War, Toward the Light of Opportunity: Daniella Runyambo's Story (Part 1)

• Dr. Duncan Reid, MD @ EthnoMed.org • Season 1 • Episode 14

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We continue our Provider Pulse interview series where we elevate diverse voices from across healthcare fields to hear the paths people took to their current roles and how their life experiences shape the care they provide.

In the first part of this two-part episode, we speak with Daniella Runyambo, Co-Executive Director of Programs and Community Impact at the Refugee Community Partnership in North Carolina. Daniella takes us back to her childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, growing up in the shadow of war and displacement, and the sense of community that carried her family through upheaval.

She reflects on her family’s eventual resettlement in Maine—navigating high school as a refugee teenager, confronting stereotypes and lowered expectations, and pushing for more rigorous opportunities. Despite language barriers and cultural misunderstandings, Daniella excelled academically and carved out a sense of belonging, laying the foundation for her future as a community leader.

This episode is a story of resilience, identity, and the strength of community bonds.

Whether you are a pre-health student, a practicing clinician, or someone interested in how personal history shapes professional identity, Daniella’s story will stay with you.

Visit EthnoMed.org for additional resources. Follow us on YouTube and Instagram @EthnoMedUW

06_28_2025 Daniella Runyambo

Duncan: [00:00:00] Welcome to the EthnoMed Podcast, a community voice in the clinic. My name is Dr. Duncan Reid, a physician at Harborview Medical Center's International Medicine Clinic and Medical director of EthnoMed, a web resource for providers and patients with information for cross-cultural care. Today we continue our Provider Pulse interview series where we elevate diverse voices from across healthcare fields to hear the paths people took to their current roles and how their life experiences shape the care they provide. 

Daniella: And I remember sitting in the, classroom And one of the teacher was also a football coach. And he was recruiting at the time a student from another school to come to Portland High. And I remember sitting in that class while he was recruiting.

And then he told to that, that young man, he was like, you come to Portland High, it's a good school. Although these refugees have ruined it for us. And I was there, I was there. 

And he was like sharing all this, like how this refugee have ruined the reputation of the school. But the school was still good.  And I remember [00:01:00] that kid looking at me. And the teacher was like, oh, don't, don't worry about her. So that was like my high school. 

Duncan: That is Daniella Runyambo who today is a co-executive Director of Programs and Community Impact at the Refugee Community Partnership in North Carolina, an organization that helps immigrants and refugees navigate complex systems, especially healthcare. Our interview has been divided into two episodes.

In this first part of our conversation, Daniella takes us back to her childhood in Congo, the wars and displacement her family endured, her early schooling, and her first years as a refugee teenager in Maine.

It's a journey of resilience, culture, and identity.

Daniella: My name is Daniella Runyambo and I'm originally from Congo. My mother's from Rwanda, but I was born and grew up in Congo. I moved to the United States in 2007. I was a teenager at the time, I was 16, and specifically I moved to Maine in the cold. And [00:02:00] I, currently live in North Carolina. I am a co-executive director of an grassroots nonprofit called Refugee Community Partnership. And just in bigger picture, what we do, we support people navigating different systems, but our area of focus is supporting refugee and immigrants navigating specifically healthcare systems because we've identified that it's a big, priority to our members.

 navigating healthcare system can be really challenging. So for refugee and immigrants who don't speak the language, who have a different background, a different system, backgrounds or no systems at all in place for them where they're from, coming to navigate the complexity of our, system, the US can be really challenging.

 So, we do a lot of work around social determinant of health, but our main area of work is supporting people navigating healthcare systems, collect information and doing a lot of advocacy. 

Duncan: , And you're based in,

Daniella: in North Carolina, chapel Hill area, uh, North

and most of the navigation that you're helping with people, are they local people there?

Daniella: They are local people in Orange County, North Carolina, and [00:03:00] Durham County, North Carolina. For those people who know triangle area many people will recognize them from the big school. There's UNC where Michael Jordan went to school, and there's also Duke. 

Duncan: And then what communities are most of the people you're working with?

Daniella: It's community from different, countries, but I'm gonna group them in language for people to have a context. So we have people from Afghan who speak Dar Pashto and Urdu. We have people who speak Arabic, so we have people from Syria and other Arabic speaking countries.

And then we have Spanish speakers, and that's a lot of countries as well. We have people who speak Burmese and Karen, so mostly people who are from Burma. We also have people who speak French, Swahili, Kinyarwanda. So we have Central African Republic, Congo, Burundi, , Rwanda. Yeah, those are the, big groups of major languages of, people we work

Duncan: There's quite a few. What does your day-to-day look like?

Daniella: Mostly I'm thinking about organizational development. 

 So a lot of my work is around, how is our management doing what priority, what are we hearing from community? [00:04:00] How are we structurally doing that?

And also how do our people get paid? So fundraising, what is our budget looking like? I am figuring out what type of partnership and allyship do we need to strategically work in our community to advance the work that we are doing.

 I do a lot of meetings.

Duncan: Can we go back and can you tell me about growing up? You were growing up where?

Daniella: Yes. So I was born in Congo in Kiliba . It's a very small town and around 96, there was a war back home and it was the first world that I remember fleeing. And so I moved from Kiliba in the small town in South Kivu to the bigger town, to the capital in South Kivu, which was Bukavu. And that was my first encounter with war.

It's when I was six years old. and when we arrived to Bukavu, we had to flee again to Rwanda. We're in refugee camps in 98, went back to Congo. We lived in Congo and, just [00:05:00] war and gunshots and people dying because of war and the genocide in the region, in, Rwanda specifically.

But you also like got to us in Congo because South Kivu was right at the border of Rwanda That fear that civil war was, part of me growing up. I remember we would go to school and at school we hear, gun shot and they'll tell us to duck under the table.

We'll do that. We'll go home. We'll be excited to go home because we know that maybe, probably we don't have school the next day. And it will be like staying home maybe under our beds for the day. But then after the gunshots in the morning, in the afternoon, go play outside with our friends.

Although I'm saying all this story like, that war torn area, that was all we knew. But it doesn't take the fact that I also had a beautiful childhood. And I can never trade home with anything else. Some of the fondest memories that I have of ever happy childhood is when I was back home.

So that was part of my life, but also the community, the sense of community was part of my home and my story as, growing up. My [00:06:00] father was a medical doctor and going with him to the hospitals and, just looking at him, working with people from all backgrounds and different communities and being with a school with people from different backgrounds that are different from my own.

Although like in those war, mostly with the tribal war and civil war and the people that were fighting were our own people, but that didn't translate to the day-to-day life. There was the political side of it, which was ugly and was bringing us against each other. But beyond that, there was also just the community side of it that brought us closer.

Like, if we didn't have salt, our neighbor will have salt. Like we just lived in community, which now that I think of it, I, I wonder how we did that because it was the politic was pitting us against each other, but we were able to survive that and still live within community and love each other.

Now when I reflect as the Congolese community here in the us, we have more disconnection and hatred here abroad than we have at home. Because there's [00:07:00] a perspective that is missing that, being outside of the country. We can't move the momentum that we lived with at home, outside of the country.

So that was my childhood. It was a beautiful, beautiful childhood. There's a lot of traumatic part to it, that I still unpack until today. But I, I love my home and there's nothing beautiful than my home.

Duncan: And you were kind of moving around quite a bit too, and I'm guessing other families were moving around as well.

Daniella: Yes. So we move either city to city or country to, from Congo to Rwanda.

Sometime we'll go for a couple of days sometime we'll go for a night to survive. Mostly we're moving because there was something happening, a civil war, a conflict and mostly politically driven and we will have to move and moving around. And then in 2004 we fled, from Congo to Rwanda.

We had the refugee camp, then we went to the capital, and after two years, we moved to Maine, to the U.S..

Duncan: How was [00:08:00] schooling during that time? If you're moving back and forth?

Daniella: That's a good question. So I went to a private school, a beautiful, very nice private school, in Congo. And then I remember going to another school called College Alfajiri, one of the best schools in the region. And schooling was amazing. I think some of the best teacher I've ever had, both in Congo and in Rwanda were Congolese teachers.

They're just good. They're passionate people and they're people who they show their passion in the way they teach There's also this culture of being authentic. That is really interesting for a child. If you want a child to learn this, you have to be fun. You have to be authentic, you have to have some personality in the way you teach.

And I feel like some of the best teachers I've had were Congolese teachers, so school at the time, it was good. I went to school, and I did really good in school. Then I moved to Rwanda. That was a little bit challenging because I found out that the system in Congo was a little bit different from the system in Rwanda. Because in system in Rwanda, they will teach Kinyarwanda and they [00:09:00] will teach chemistry and physics in sixth grade, in seventh grade, in eighth grade.

But in Congo, unless you are doing math and science in ninth grade, you wouldn't learn, those specific courses. So when I went to Rwanda, and at the time I was in eighth grade, we had to pass an exam and part of that exam, it was to take some of these courses that I hadn't had in Congo.

And that was really, that was challenging. But overall, I feel like the education that I had in Congo was actually really interesting and really good. Because I remember one time I went to a school in Rwanda and I was in boarding school and I started acting out and there was three Congolese teacher teaching in Rwanda at the time, and they called me and they were like, Daniella, you are Daniella Runyambo is your dad, Dr. Runyambo. And I say, yes. and one of the teacher was like, your dad helped my uncle when he needed a job. We love him. And they were like, why are you acting out? And I was like, what do you mean? I was like, you cannot come from Congo. Go to college Alfajiri and no, [00:10:00] be the top of your class. I don't care if you don't speak Kinyarwanda.

I don't care if you don't know some of these things, but , you won't put us to shame. You are our girl and we need you to do better. And it was because of them that I started doing better. Because I had a responsibility to show up and to show Rwandese kid, the Congolese kids learn better.

And it was just, it was just so beautiful. And these were people who were not for my tribe. These are people like if you were to look at the political climate in Congo, they shouldn't have been helping me. But again, that sense of community. When you meet your own and you recognize them and you forget about all the conflict that is happening and you support them.

And they saw me at this boarding school, it was my first time, and they adopted me as their daughter and they pour into me and encouraged me and whatever. I was acting out 'cause it was definitely acting out 'cause after they told me that and they start following me, I got better. It wasn't that they were giving me extra [00:11:00] tutoring,  they just acknowledged me and they saw me.

And they're like, you can do better. And I did better. So, uh, and that kind of like was my schooling at the time. Because of the proximity of the countries, there's so many things that were similar and also because of our background of being colonized back around the same people. So there were the same big systemic educational way of doing things that was similar in both countries, so it wasn't a big learning curve for me.

And also coming from a parents who went to school and understood education, they emphasized the importance of education in our lives and told us that education was gonna get us farther. So it was important for us to do good at school.

Duncan: Do you remember any of those teacher's names?

Daniella: Oh, no, I don't remember their names. I don't remember their names, but, and this is something that I've noticed about myself is that because of moving so much, you connect with people at a time, but you try to not get too attached because you are always moving a lot.

And this is something that I'm noticing about myself is that [00:12:00] because I moved, in the US is the first place where I actually live in a place for eight years straight. My whole life it's been, you live here for two years and then you go there for one year and then you go there for three years.

So it never, it was never stable. And I realized that there's some soft skill that I didn't develop. And one of them is like, I get to know people and in the moment I'll fully be present, but once I move to the next life, I, I disconnect. And I even, you know, even simple things like, do you remember the names?

I'm like, I don't, I don't remember. And um, I, I realized that that mentality followed me. And I'm noticing it even now, that I have a hard time keeping up, especially with acquaintances, because of just how I was brought up into like moving, moving, moving. You have to take care of the thing now.

You have to take care of the now. And I don't know, I just felt like sharing that.

Duncan: No, that's very interesting. I wonder if it is a similarity with other,

Daniella: I don't know. Maybe someone out there is noticing the same thing.

Duncan: and what about [00:13:00] language of instruction in Congo, it was in.

Daniella: So in Congo was in French and in Rwanda, luckily the time I was in Rwanda, it was still in French. Right after I left Rwanda, there was this issue of language and where they were learning in French and then English, and I switched back to French and I went back to English. Luckily I wasn't there at the time.

At the time, it was all in French.

Duncan: you were displaced and you were in Rwanda, you said two years.

Daniella: Yeah, so my, family was in Congo and then we displaced and then we were in Rwanda for two years. And then after two years, my father came in the US seeking asylum end of 2005 was granted asylum. And in June 6th, 2007, we joined him.

Duncan: Oh, so years later,

Daniella: Yes. That was like after a year and a half.

Duncan: a year and a half. Wow. And then you said, so he was seeking asylum, he was granted asylum, and then family moved over to

Maine,

Yeah. Why Maine?

Daniella: My mother used to have a non-profit called, and it was a [00:14:00] non-profit that she started because she was noticing that there was a lot of widows back in my country due to war. There was a lot of people who lost their family and their stability and their husbands, and these women were with no social support. A lot of our community depends on families, especially in the community. I'm from Banyamulenge from Congo. We depend on families. If your family was from this clan, your husband specifically when you get married, you leave your whole family to go to the husband family.

And if your husband died, that family is supposed to be taking care of you. And with the work in Congo, a lot of the women didn't work. A lot of the men were bread winners and the women were staying home. So when you lose that man, then you lose everything. And a lot of these women were subject to a lot of barriers and issues, including sexual abuse, you know, like where you have to now please all these people in your community to get some support. And that was almost the norm because there was no skills that [00:15:00] people were taught that could earn them an income. So they were very dependent on everybody else. So she thought starting a nonprofit that will help those women learn some skills.

And they were making clothing and selling those. So that nonprofit, a lot of the sponsors that she had were actually from Maine. So prior to moving to Maine, my mom had traveled to Maine to get some sponsorship to talk about program. So when the war strike and the acquaintances that we had in the US were from Maine, so when my dad came to visit, she went to visit people in Maine and, that's how we ended up in Maine.

Duncan: Okay. That makes sense. So both of your parents are quite busy in Congo they were doing, they were up to a lot. 

Daniella: yes.

my dad was a physician, the first physician actually in his tribe, also in the tribes around the area that he's from. And my mom is actually from Rwanda, but she lived in Congo and she went to school in Congo. And she worked in a nonprofit sector. She founded that organization.

But prior to that she was a stay at home mom. And they were just people [00:16:00] who loved community. My daddy was, although he was a physician and became a director of health in South Kivu, and a lot of his work was around public health. So he did start bring a lot of, clinics and hospital in remote areas.

And he was just passionate about health And, at the time the government wasn't necessarily supporting the provinces, when it comes to like funds. So although he was working for the government, a lot of the funds were coming from these big NGOs to support the work in the rural area.

So although he was a physician, he practiced during the day, but a lot of the work that he was doing around public health in the area,

Duncan: How was Maine? So you were 16 years old when you went to Maine,

so how was that? Do you remember that well, when you arrived in Maine?

Daniella: Yes, we went to Maine and it was in the summer apparently it was in the summer, but I remember getting off the plane and it was so cold. So we landed in Boston, and June, in Boston in 2007 was really, really cold. I remember wearing a winter [00:17:00] jacket. The people who came to see us and my dad at, at the time with his friend, they brought us jackets.

I think they knew we were gonna get cold. And I remember wearing a winter jacket, because it was cold to me. But everybody was, was wearing tank tops. And that was confusing to me. So we drove two hours and when we got to Portland, Maine, and we were living in a small apartment at the time, it was a few of my siblings and I, and it was a three bedroom apartment 

There was a cousin of ours who was living also in Maine. We went there first we ate, then we went to our apartment. And I remember going to bed, but waking up the time that I knew there was arrived in the US is because I woke up and there was a siren going on. We were close to Maine Medical Hospital, so it was near the hospital and it was like a police siren.

There was like the ambulance, going by. And then I opened the window and I saw an electric line. And on that electric line, I saw some shoe. shoe lace and shoes on the electric line. And then I remember everything that I saw on TV and [00:18:00] on in movies about, about the U.S.. And I remember a lot of the movie that I saw, I watched had shoes on the electric line.

So I was like, okay, now I've, arrived. 'cause in the apartment, everything beside the two story apartment, everything else was in Congo is very advanced. Congo has electricity. We had stove, we had everything in the house, although I got an appreciation for laundry machines and dishwashers. But everything else was things that I'm, I was familiar with.

But that electric line in the shoe and the siren. I was like, I am in the U.S.. I am now in the U.S.. I've arrived.

Duncan: How was school in Maine?

Daniella: Yes. So I went to Portland High School and school was the hard one to navigate, especially at the time I was in high school. So I was supposed to go in 11th grade. I was arguing that I should be in 12th grade, but I remember my parents saying, you don't know the language, maybe you should go back.

And [00:19:00] I started in 10th grade and I remember, because I had done 10th grade back home, and we do learn interestingly, in Africa, we learn a lot about American history and the world histories. And so I had a good educational background. So the, content of what we're learning wasn't, hard for me.

But the language piece to it was difficult. Because I have a French background, maybe I wouldn't have spoken English easily, but I could understand, the context of what I was learning. The harder part was convincing my teacher that I know that was the hard part.

' cause I do understand because every time they will see an African, they will just assume. That we are all the same, which is, I mean, it's not a bad assumption. We are all human, but we have different backgrounds and we have different educational background and cultural background.

So a lot of , the people who were at the time in Maine were refugee from Somali and refugee from Sudan. And unfortunately for our brothers from Sudan and Somali, all they knew was refugee camps. They were [00:20:00] displaced from their home really early on. And many of them didn't get a chance to go to school.

 So a lot of the time, the first time they would be in school was in America studying English and no background in school. So they were going in most of them because here in America we come and they look at your age and they'll put you to a grade level that is relevant to your age. So a lot of the people were coming without knowing how to read and write or without having a good educational background.

 and then, so the assumption was all of us were refugee or asylum seekers are all the same. So, I, remember, one of the class that they took me, the English learning class, I was like, okay, I can, I can learn A, B, C, I guess that's okay.

 But some of the math class was literally two plus two, like 10 divided by five. I remember the way we do division the way we learn in primary school, you put a number 10 and then you put like a a line the way we would like. Yeah. The way we like write it down was a little different than the way they write down here.

 And I remember going to class and they wrote it down in the American way [00:21:00] 20 divide by four. I think that was the question. But because they wrote it down a little differently, I got confused. I was like, what are they asking? So I asked the question, What are you asking?

And the teacher completely assumed that I didn't know what 20 divide by four was. so that was my ruin. Like the classes they were putting me was literally like addition subtraction, multiplication. When I remember how we were beaten at my primary school back home to learn all the multiplication table to memorize it to see the how in here in the US and they're asking me what, two plus two. I felt offended and I was like, how do I explain to this teacher? And I don't have enough English to explain that I know. So that was a lot of my fight in high school. So I felt like in high school, I felt like instead of learning some actually good behavior skill of what learning was in America, I spent most of my time fighting about why we are different without offending my other [00:22:00] African refugee. I didn't want people to think that I was better, but I just want them to understand that we have different background and different up upbringing and that we needed more challenging. So how do we do it in a way that is like reasonable and that is honorable.

So I felt like that was all my fight in high school. So I moved from like that one plus one and I was like, give me more tests. If I fail it, I'll stay in the class, but if I pass it, you give me another class. So in 10th grade I started by one by one. By the time I graduated I was in a calculus class.

Similarly, I was in AP classes. But that was a big challenge. I remember one time was taking anatomy class and there was like two other Somalian girls and I was a junior at the time. They were all seniors and at the time, like seniors would be dismissed early, especially when I was closer to graduation.

And I remember sitting in the, classroom because I was the only junior so I couldn't leave.  And one of the teacher was also a football coach. And he was recruiting at the time a student from another school to come to Portland High. And I remember sitting in that class while he was recruiting.

And then he told to that, that young man, [00:23:00] he was like, you come to Portland High, it's a good school. Although these refugees have ruined it for us. And I was there, I was there. And they've made it cause apparently the score were very low. And obviously if we're taking everybody from different level, generally our score wasn't high in the states.

 And he was like sharing all this, like how this refugee have ruined the reputation of the school. But the school was still good. And I remember that kid looking at me. And the teacher was like, oh, don't, don't worry about her. So that was like my high school. And then I remember also taking an AP biology,  and every day there was like two black people in that class.

It was me and the Ethiopian girl who was adopted in the American family here since she came when she was like two years old. And I remember every day I'll go in that class and the teacher will remind me of how hard the class would be. It's like, I can't imagine taking this class in French, so it must be hard.

 And that was the narrative every day I'm like, I, it's hard, just like, it might be hard for everybody else, but like, you're not helping me. it's almost like telling me like, why are you taking this [00:24:00] class? So that was like a lot of my high school,

Duncan: did you feel solidarity with some of these other African migrants that were there?

Daniella: At the time the student from Somalia and Sudan we were very disconnected. I'll say that. We also come from different countries in Africa and most of us have never heard from the others, until we were there, we didn't have that solidarity at the time.

 But by the time there was a couple of other students from the region I was from, who had the same experience as me. So there was like maybe five of us who were doing the same fight, which made a huge difference because after us, none of the people who came after us had to go through the same thing we went through, because we had to prove that we were different and we did it in a way, I'm very proud, I don't know what you guys do to do it this way, but we're very sensitive about doing it in a way that is honoring the rest of the refugee students who are, were there with us and we were telling them like, we just, we are different.

 Take your time to know us. Ask us about a background and we'll let you know. Some of us come to this [00:25:00] place, some of us come to this place and we start doing culture nights at school So I think that helped a lot in a way that is dignifying.

So a couple of us found solidarity together. But that was a, fight that was for a specific group. but it was also a good pathway because there was a lot of also new Americans in terms of like this Somalian and Sudanese family were having kids who were growing up here and whose background will be very different from their older siblings who were not.

 So having that pathway there for them was necessary as well. So I feel very proud of that work that we did at the

Duncan: Well, it's a very complicated balancing act that I would never have thought

existed 

Daniella: Yeah. Oh yeah.

Duncan: Do you remember any particular teachers that were, that football teacher stands out, but do you remember any particular teachers being particularly sensitive to where you're coming from or the opposite?

Daniella: Yes. I remember two particularly I remember, and I'm trying to Mr. Talarico I [00:26:00] remember that name because this was a, an ESL teacher. So I fought for every other class except for the English class. 'cause I was like, I don't have any background in English. So might as well learn. And this teacher was the highest English grade that you can take as an ESL student before go moving into mainstream.

So this was a teacher who particularly knew where we're coming from, had an interest to know his students.  You can tell that he was very passionate about his students, so he took his time to learn who we're from our background and encouraged us a lot. So I remember one time actually, I took a test with him and he wanted me to move to the mainstream, and I told him no.

I was like, I'm gonna stay in your class for at least an extra year. Because he was all the fights that I was fighting. I felt like I didn't have enough in me to also fight to learn English and to fight to be in the mainstream, even though like  I could  books even though I couldn't read properly.

But I could understand the context. I could write in French and figure out how [00:27:00] to translate in English, but I felt like  that was a comfort  class for me to be at, to talk about my struggle for my other classes, but also to just take time to learn. That was one class that I knew that I was actually going to learn something.

And I was learning from a person who was very sensitive to our stories. He was very encouraging. He would go in his class and a lot of his class was he was encouraging us to talk. it was almost like our therapist and our teacher at the same time, he will encourage us discussion among ourselves and  so a lot of my friends and I like would go and fight all the other class.

We feel like we were in a battle in the other classes. But when we come to his class, he was like a place where we like would share or exchange our experiences.  So I remember his class and I remember him particularly because it made a huge impact. I felt like seeing when it came to him in his class and the way he created a safe space for us in his classroom.

I remember, I don't remember her name, but I remember my counselors. So [00:28:00] a lot of, who come from the countries that we are from the Great Lake region we have a lot of last names start with U R like. So a lot of us had the same counselor cause the counselor were by last name.

And our names were just like around the same, letters. And these were like, all the letters were from this one counselor. So I remember the counselor being really willing to learn and to work with us and that I loved about her. ' cause after that we graduated from high school and we were about to go to college and everybody else we spoke to wanted to send us to community college.

nobody at the time told us about the educational system in the U.S.. all we knew about community college is that the people who don't go to four years university go to community college. I wish I knew what I know now, know that I can save money by going to community college.

So in the eyes of our parents and in our eyes too, it seemed almost like a failure or a backslide if you went to a community college first before going to a college four years degree. So everybody was like, go to community college. [00:29:00] But the idea wasn't a go to community college to save money.

And you get enough education. A lot of people were sending us to community college. It's the narrative around it. Go to even community college because you learn to learn English first and then maybe we get an associate degree. Like if you do well, we might get an associate degree. But this counselor was seeing our progress, was acknowledging our progress, and was encouraging us to apply.

I remember she encouraged me to apply to Boston University. She encouraged me to apply to Bates, to Baldwin. to U Maine. I know she recommended me for the honors program at U Maine. I know she selected me for a book award to Springfield College in Boston. And it wasn't just me. It was a lot of the people that.

We were in our cohort of students and the people after us, we all knew that our counselor was the best. So those are two people that I recall were very championing us in this journey.

Duncan: What made them different, do you think, than the other teachers?

Daniella: I don't know, I think, I can see how it can be discouraging for people who don't know [00:30:00] any background story about who we are as people, as refugee and immigrants. And or when we come and we don't have maybe that background of academic knowledge and we are learning at 16 how to write our names and people are not equipped in their system to support us, it can be very discouraging.

And not everybody's a champion. Have that self-motivation to want to learn. And at the time, there was not a lot of social media for people to go on YouTube to just learn. People just had a lot of assumption. And this country doesn't even, let's forget about refugee, like this country it does not encourage learning about diversity. This country it has its own great things, but there's also a lot of lack when it comes to people being curious about other people's culture because the American mentality like we are the best and that's it. Forget about everybody else.

So I feel like it's a, it's a culture mentality that was not encouraged. And I know Mr. Talarico, I think had traveled outside of the us so that opened the eyes probably. But [00:31:00] also this counselor I'm assuming that by working to try to help people because as counselor has to go there because they want to help people.

And there must be some family backgrounds or like values that pushed her to want to do more because the norm is assume until proven otherwise. But for you to go outside of the norm to try to fit the curiosity. You can be curious, but it doesn't mean that you can be encouraging.

So there has to be some like solid value, that you might be coming from, that push you to wanna see things farther and differently and value different perspective. So I'm assuming that there's , some of that in their background

Duncan: Did you have friends from Maine there?

Daniella: Who are American from Maine? Not at the time. At the time it was the people of my community, other refugees. There was not a lot of English communication. And again, the standard was there, are these refugee and everybody else, and we did not fit into their narrative. 

I am glad I came to the US as a teenager [00:32:00] because it wasn't a good site to live through, especially in Maine. We were not resettled for my family. We were not resettled in the U.S.. Meaning like there was no a settlement agency 

It was just us going to a community and trying to figure out on our own. And that wasn't, an infrastructure that was there, especially in Portland, Maine for us. and the people were not prepared maybe they were prepared to share space, but they're not prepared to share community.

so we didn't get that. I don't remember having any white friends in high school.

Duncan: So then it sounds like the big thing is community college versus a four year university, 

Daniella: My parents were set for a four years college because they thought that that was the best and that's all they knew. That was the best. And at the time the narrative was community college is less than, and the way they were sending us to community college, like, you don't speak English, you don't know better go to community college first.

It wasn't like, this is another path. It was more like, you don't know so start with community college. And our parents knew that we were educated and we could do better. So they're like, you can do four years [00:33:00] college, let's aim for that because you can do it.

So it was more of like our parents were saying that we could do better and they were encouraging us because they saw potential in us to do better.

Duncan: And where did you end up going?

Daniella: So I wind up going to University of Maine. At the time, my parents didn't understand, also living out of state, I had to receive a book award, which also hinted that I could also get a full scholarship to go to Boston, which it was, it was again, hour and 45 minutes.

But just it being an out of state, was not convincing for my parents. They wanted me to be close to home, and where I ended up going was actually still two hours away from home. But because it was in Maine, it wasn't very important to them. And also, I was among the oldest siblings who are at first time attending, college in the us and they needed me to be the proximity to home and then to support my family as they navigate these new systems for themself and for my siblings as well.

 They thought that me staying in Maine was the necessary path that I needed to take. So I ended up going to University of Maine.

Duncan: How was that experience?

Daniella: That's when the [00:34:00] fun part began. It was different. It was fun. That concludes part one of my conversation with Daniella Runyambo. In this episode, we heard about her early years in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda growing up in the shadow of war and displacement, and the strength of community that carried her family through constant upheaval.

We followed her family's resettlement in Maine, where Daniella confronted the challenges of starting over as a teenager, navigating a new language, facing lowered expectations and pushing back against stereotypes in the classroom. Despite those barriers, she fought for more rigorous opportunities, excelled academically in high school, and carved out a sense of belonging.

Here's a preview of part two of our conversation together

when I got to college. I kind of relaxed a little bit too much that I needed to. Um. Because this, it was a fight, fight, fight. Oh, I can't fight. I don't have to fight. Oh, relaxed. And, and that I regret. because the [00:35:00] difference between the American education and the Central African education is that in the US everybody has potential to do great, but it takes some self-discipline.

If you're disciplined enough, it doesn't matter your capacity, you can achieve greatness.

 Everything I learned about black people navigating maternity systems, especially around maternal health. Everything that I learned became a reality to me. I was discriminated against. I cried for pain and I was ignored. 

But it wasn't until I gave birth that I realized how difficult and things that were reading a statistic for Black American it wasn't just for the African American in this country, but it was all people of color. And that's when it became so true to me that I was black. ' cause I knew I was black, but I didn't know that I was black. Until I went to that experience. And, yeah. And, uh, so that changed how I view [00:36:00] things  

 In part two of our conversation, Daniella picks up the story with her time at the University of Maine, her first steps into a career, the challenges of motherhood and the powerful experiences that ultimately led her into leadership at the Refugee Community Partnership. I hope you'll join us next week for the second part of this inspiring story.

 Thank you for listening to the EthnoMed Podcast, a community voice in the clinic. If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with a colleague or a student who might be inspired by Daniella's journey. you can also find more episodes on Spotify, apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Be sure to visit our website@ethnomed.org for additional resources. Also, follow us on YouTube and Instagram at EthnoMeduw and on LinkedIn. Do you have comments or suggestions? We would love to hear from you at EthnoMeduw@uw.edu. Thank you and see [00:37:00] you at our next episode.