Sam Tuzabonimana is two years away from doing something some of his peers never get the opportunity to do: achieve his dream.

Aspirations abound, but they rarely come to fruition in rural Nyagatare District of Rwanda’s Eastern Province. Parents there are likely to pressure their children to forgo higher education and become farmers instead, Tuzabonimana said.

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"In the U.S., you grow up and want to be like your parents. But for us, you don’t,” said Tuzabonimana, a 26-year-old dental surgery student at the University of Rwanda.

He wears a well-fitted collared shirt and leans in a little when he speaks. He is a calculated person who smiles after every answer as though inviting you to understand and connect with him.

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His mother, Donatha Icyimpaye, and father, Anastase Kabiri, are farmers in the village of Bihinga. But unlike many parents in his district who prefer girls to marry and boys to do what’s chosen for them, Tuzabonimana and five siblings, four of whom are sisters, were encouraged to pursue their dreams.

"My dream when I was young was to be a doctor, and I think I’m about to be,” he said with a nod of pride.

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Tuzabonimana said he chose to become a doctor because "when a person comes to you with no hope of life or healing, you take care of them.” The medical profession also comes with financial benefits, which he plans to use to support his family.

Tuzabonimana hopes to fill a void. He said he saw a need for more dental surgeons in Rwanda. The first person to graduate from a dental surgery programme in the country did so in 2018. At the time, Rwanda had only about 40 registered dentists serving a population of 12 million people, according to the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Tuzabonimana said he hopes his contributions will help move Rwanda one step closer to improving oral healthcare. His parents encouraged him to pursue a career as a dental surgeon. But supporting children in their academic pursuits is expensive. Many parents prefer that their children stay nearby and work as farmers, he said.

"The biggest challenge for my parents was school fees,” Tuzabonimana said. "Having six kids is a lot of work, and they have made many sacrifices, like selling land ... They’re still struggling with it. But they grow crops to sell and sell the cows they had.”

Cows are integral to his village, he said. They have always been important in Rwanda as symbols of prosperity and status.

His family used to have 12 cows before he and his siblings reached university, he said. They now have only three left, but they raised and sold around 70 calves during that time to raise funds.

Tuzabonimana’s parents are the people he loves most in his life. His biggest fear is losing one of them "because they have done a lot of things and I wish them to see me achieving my goals, and what they have struggled for me to achieve.”

He treasures his relationship with his parents and hopes the freedom they gave him will create a positive generational effect.

"My parents are the ones who encouraged me to study and for me to choose what to study, and ... they supported me,” he said. "When [parents] put restrictions, when [they] are forcing [children] to do things, it starts mental problems,” he said.

Some of his peers turned to drugs because they were in jobs they did not want and were unhappy with their career paths, he said.

Tuzabonimana is evidence that supporting one person’s dream can contribute to progress for an entire nation.

"So, I think I will do this for my kids,” he said.

"I can give them options if they want, but they have to choose what to do for themselves. And when they do, I’ll support them. We all have dreams. Human beings are like that. You never stop dreaming.”

The writer is a student at the University of Georgia.