We were forced to leave our home in Venezuela after government supporters attempted to kill my mother. I cut short my undergraduate degree and travelled to Germany, where I sought refuge.
I was determined to continue studying, convinced that education would be my way forward. But the German system made it hard for someone like me to get in. My Venezuelan high school diploma wasn’t equivalent to a German one. I could only access university by taking a year-long preparatory course, which required passing a competitive entrance exam.
On exam day, I stood in line with dozens of non-European students. Another Venezuelan there had studied at the Humboldt School, one of Caracas’s most elite institutions. Around us were students from Lebanon, China, Nigeria, Brazil – graduates of international schools, fluent in German and English, prepped to circulate globally.
