Sonzia Naomi Tieou has been at Fridley High School for two years. She moved here from the Ivory Coast in 2023. She came with her dad and her sister. Being in the USA was difficult at first, because she had to take care of her sister after school and study very hard because she needed to learn English. 

After high school, Naomi plans to join the military and go to college part-time. She will join the reserves in order to help her pay for college. She will be attending Hennepin Technical College in the fall to study to be a medical assistant. Her ultimate plans are to be a Pediatrician, but she will work as a medical assistant in order to get training and experience in medicine and to have a job while she is studying. 

Naomi’s favorite part of being in high school are her history classes. She likes to read about past and real events. She enjoyed being on the Badminton team this year. Everyone came together to play, she made many new friends. Despite the competitions with other schools, everyone was excited to get to know each other. Everyone was very calm and respectful with each other. 

Naomi is really proud of herself because she had to work very hard to be where she is now as a student. When she first came, everything was very confusing. She had to learn a totally new language in order to be successful in her classes. In the Ivory Coast, Naomi went to school in French. She did not know English until she came to Fridley. She also had to get used to the bell schedule. In the Ivory Coast, her school day was very long, nearly 10 hours. She found herself at Fridley when she found friends that were also from Africa. They took her in and gave her helpful advice and helped her adjust to American life. 

Her mom inspired her to continue working hard in school. She motivated her by telling her she had to work hard in order to get a better life. She is also inspired by her younger siblings. She wants to be a good role model for them. Naomi has one younger sister and two younger brothers that couldn’t come to the USA at the same time that she did. 

Her advice for incoming freshmen is to be cool. By that, she means to be focused and be yourself. Don’t change for anyone, not even your friends. They have a lot of time to be focused on their school work. 

She will miss her teachers. She feels she has the very best conversations with her teachers. They talk about life with her and she talks about her life with them. She feels she has a good relationship with all her teachers here at Fridley. She will also miss her friends. Everyone will go to different places after this.