Parents' AIDS Deaths Have Driven Bergen Valedictorian To Succeed

PARAMUS, NJ — Lindsey Njanja overcame a lot very early in life.

Njanja is valedictorian of Bergen Community College's (BCC) class of 2019. She has a 4.0 grade point average. Her parents died of AIDS when she was just 2 years old. She will participate in commencement Thursday

"Although I was lucky enough to not get the virus, I still faced stigmatization from a shallow-minded society," said Njanja, a Lodi resident. "I was discriminated and made to feel unimportant."

Njanja is using that as fuel for her future endeavors. She aspires to three things in life: Find a cure for HIV and AIDS, eradicate the stigma directed toward victims of the virus, and build a children's home in Kenya and Uganda. She wants to share the love she experienced from the grandparents who raised her to others.

"I enjoy studying biology, specifically viruses," Njajna said. "I find HIV very fascinating in how it only attacks the immune system and not anything else. The virus knows that the only way to bring down a human being is by attacking its defense mechanism."

Njajna is transferring to Rutgers University in New Brunswick where she will major in cellular and molecular biology. She plans on getting her medical degree and become a clinical researcher.

She was able to succeed at BCC because of the support she received from her professors.

Alan Eliscu, whom Njanja took for Success 101, a computer science class, changed her life.

"He mentored me from the very first class I took at Bergen, up to this very moment," Njanja said. "As soon as I told him about my interests in medicine, he contacted a world-renowned surgeon, Dr. Beth Schrope of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital."

Njanja shadowed Schrope and interned in 2018 at the National Institutes of Health.

Mathematics Professor Nelda Latham also had a big impact on Njanja's life.

"She is very passionate in how she teaches, and she explains all the concepts very well in a precise manner," Njanja said. Professor Latham changes my disinterest in mathematics into a love for the subject such that I even joined the Math Club and became an officer."

Njanja has the next few decades of her life planned.

After getting her medical degree, she wants to build children's homes in her 30s. Fast forward to her 40s and Njanja wants to be "thriving in my field as a doctor, maybe even receive the Noble Peace Prize for finding the cure for AIDS, have raised and educated many children at the homes, and have a family of my own."

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com