SABIENNE BRUTUS, 16

In 2005, the High School for Global Citizenship student and her siblings moved to Crown Heights from Haiti to escape the country’s political  instability and to get treatment for her eldest sister, who was diagnosed with cancer.

It was a tough transition for Sabienne, who then spoke no English: “I was always walking around with a dictionary in my hand and trying to understand what people were saying.”

She was shy at first, mocked by classmates for her accent and for being Haitian. Then she became involved in Global Kids, a leadership program at her school, and began learning about other cultures and meeting students from around the world.

She traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for a bill that would approve using U.S. funds to boost basic educational opportunities in the developing world. She also spent a month living in Chile to learn about the country and work on yet another language — Spanish.

It wasn’t always easy to find time for schoolwork. As the second eldest, Sabienne was often charged with caring for her younger sisters while her mother was at the hospital during her older sister’s chemotherapy. Still, she will graduate as the school’s valedictorian and attend Tufts University in Boston in the fall.

“I know I want to improve the lives of other people around the world, and a way to do that would be education,” she said. “I can’t do that if I don’t educate myself.”

by Elizabeth Lazarowitz