Wubetu Shimelash (’20) Is Kneel

His first two years at Wake Forest brought lessons in time management; he joined 20 organizations as a freshman and hardly got any sleep. He learned how to apply and win a Richter Scholarship to fund a film in Ethiopia; he made it in summer 2017. He learned how to apply to spend his junior fall at Worrell House in London; he was accepted. He learned he is destined to be an entrepreneur. (Already he has started Simien Eco Trek with a childhood friend to arrange travel in Ethiopia, so visitors can enjoy his country’s natural beauty and culture.) He learned that he also is destined to be a filmmaker, perhaps combining both business and filmmaking. (His major is communication; his minors are film studies and entrepreneurship.) He learned that living in Magnolia Residence Hall is “like living in a hotel.” He learned some students think walking across campus is a long way — and tiring. But he doesn’t fault them. He knows their experiences growing up were different from his. Thanks to his popularity, he learned to pad every walk to Reynolda Gardens for jogging or meditating by an extra 20 minutes, so he can talk with people along the way. He learned professors appreciate that he takes them up on office hours and meetings at coffee shops even though he doesn’t drink coffee; he is genuinely interested in them and has lots of questions.

His parents are proud now of his education and hope other children will follow. His younger brother has been accepted to Scattergood and will attend if a U.S. visa comes through. His parents say they want Wubetu to help them and the community financially and be a role model for other children.

Blake, who has been Wubetu’s financial benefactor since Wubetu started school in Addis, says, “I’ve never seen a greater return on an investment. Not just how much he’s thriving but how many people he’s inspiring and impressing every day.” He hopes Wubetu won’t overextend himself or put too much pressure on himself. Aside from those aspirations, he hopes Wubetu “can use his amazing charisma and drive and unique set of skills to help others.”

For himself, he says, “My son’s only 3 now, but my prayer is that I have the same connection with my biological son that I have with Wubetu.”

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“Wherever I go, I am not lost,” Wubetu says. “I go with my values. I try to adapt to a new culture without losing my culture.”

His values? Being happy. Being kind. Staying positive. Working hard. And loving. “The power of love is limitless,” he says.

The power of love has not wavered — for his family, for his country, for Wake Forest friends, for Blake and his family who host him during school holidays on ski trips in winter or whenever they can at their home near Los Angeles.

In his home country, Wubetu is known in the highlands to leap out of a parked car and onto a rock to spread his arms wide and shout, “Welcome to Ethiopia!” He wants his friend to film him whenever he can, so he can post videos on social media or share the images with his U.S. friends. He wants them to know why he loves his country.

During this week in July, he has made that leap from the car several times. At one spot, near the first school he attended, in Argin, he points to a mountain in the distance. Weather is closing in, with a chilly fog inching up the slope.

“See that path to the clouds?” Wubetu asks. “That’s the path I used to walk.”

Those who know him would say, without a doubt, he still does.