At age 5, Laura Jimenez left everything in her home country of Columbia behind to come to the United States with her mother. Thirteen years later she’s using what she experienced as a child to help Venezuelan refugee students adjust to life away from their home country.

As part of her school’s curriculum at Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, which requires students to complete an internship, Jimenez asked to fulfill her academic requirement at Richards Middle School, her former middle school.