Some people seem invisible. This is the case with many migrants who work in poorly paid jobs, even if they’re in fact highly qualified. Bridget Fonkeu tells us her powerful personal story, the story of an academic refugee who cleaned school and hospital corridors for years.  With the help of the Silent University, she re-gained the energy and the confidence to live to her full potential and now teaches at Dortmund Technical University. Bridget Fonkeu was born in Cameroon & is married with 4 children. In 1986, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English & theatre arts & got a Master’s degree in the science of education. She worked as a high school teacher in Cameroon, where she taught English literature to Anglophone students and English as a 2nd language to Francophone students.

As Cameroon became politically unstable, she fled to Germany as an asylum seeker in 199I. Her 2 degrees were not recognized. She worked as cleaner and a restaurant dish washer. In 2007, she decided to go back to university but was required to do a DSH Germany proficiency test. At the age of 45, she started a master’s degree at the university of Bochum. She had to keep her job as a dishwasher. In 2011, she got a Master’s degree in English linguistics from the University of Bochum. 3 years later, she moved on to the Technical University of Dortmund where she is rounding up her PhD project. She will talk about her personal experience. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx