Guled Mire is coming to us from New York, after winning a Fulbright Award to study at the Ivy League-listed Cornell University. Not a bad achievement for a young man who dropped out of school at the age of 16 after being told university wasn't really for people like him. The former refugee drew on the strength from his mother - who as a solo parent, fled Somalia in the midst of civil war with her nine children, spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya before bringing her family to New Zealand for a better life.

But what does "better life" in New Zealand actually mean? Unfortunately for Guled and so many other refugees here, it's just not that straight-forward.

So, Guled has drawn on his own experiences to become a leader, a role model, a man who works extremely hard to ensure ethnic youth of refugee and migrant backgrounds have a voice and every opportunity they can in New Zealand.

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