DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – If you attend an Embry-Riddle basketball game you will likely see Ben-Joel Ndjami standing on the baseline cheering on the Eagles.
 
Ndjami is a junior cheerleader at ERAU, but cheerleading is just one of the many ways he is involved on campus.  He is also a member of Student Government, the leadership chair in his fraternity, the treasurer of the Micro Jet club, and a member of the Collegiate Entrepreneur Club…just to name a few of his extracurricular activities. 
 
"I promised myself that if I ever got in to Embry-Riddle I would do everything there," Ndjami has said.
 
Attending Embry-Riddle is a dream come true for Ndjami.  There was a time when the young man never thought he would have that opportunity.
 
Ndjami was born in Cameroon and did not move to the United States until 10 years ago, when he was 14 years old and just about to start high school. 
 
"My mom came two years prior because she wanted her kids to have a better future," Ndjami explained.  "She wanted us to go to American schools and get better jobs."
 
Ndjami's mother worked as a home-aid in the Washington, D.C. area for two years in order save the money to pay for her four children and husband to move from the Cameroon to the U.S.  She could have used the money to pay for her own schooling, but she wanted her children to have the opportunity for a better life as soon as possible.
 
While many 14-year-old kids would be terrified of moving halfway across the world, that was not the case with Ben-Joel.
 
"I was excited," Ndjami said.  "I always wanted to come here.  I always thought the USA was awesome."
 
Ndjami adjusted to his new life quickly upon arriving in the U.S  He joined JROTC and the soccer team, and volunteered with different community service groups at Bladensburg High School in Maryland.  However, there was one thing that made his transition difficult.
 
"In the classroom, I had a language barrier," said Ndjami, whose first language was French.  "There were certain slang words and other words that I couldn't understand.  I was intelligent; there was just a cultural thing.  My accent was very thick back then and it was very hard for people to understand me."
 
Despite being a model student and taking standard level courses in all of his other classes, Ndjami was placed in remedial English classes for three years before finally being able to take a standard English class during his senior year of high school. 
 
"To improve my English I just watched TV," said Ndjami.  "I watched TV with subtitles all day.  I loved it.  That's how I got accustomed to the American language."
 
Ndjami received excellent grades throughout high school and was involved in a plethora of extracurricular activities.  He applied to colleges like St. Mary's and George Washington University.
 
But at the end of high school, he had not been accepted to any of the schools he applied to because he had not received his green card.
 
"That was bad, really bad," Ndjami said of not being accepted into college.  "My mom had very high expectations of me.   I was the kind of guy who would go spend time in the library reading books.  I felt like everyone was looking at me thinking, 'He must be smart, he must be going some where in life,' you know?
 
"After my graduation my mom threw a party and invited everyone and told everyone I was going to do these great things.  And then I didn't get in to any schools.  It was kind of like my self worth was based on me making it (to school) and then it was just crushed down.  That's not a state you want to be in."
 
While his classmates were off at college, Ndjami spent his first two years after high school working as a home-aid with his mother.  He tried going to community college, but was not passionate about it, as it did not offer any courses on aviation, which he was very interested in.
 
"Honestly, during those days I wasn't the best person," said Ndjami.  "I was extremely depressed.  I was just going through life hoping someday it was going to get better, that I was going to find something."
 
After several years of waiting, Ndjami finally found an opportunity to do something he was interested in.  His mother's friend let him know about the Aviation School of Maintenance in Manassas, Va. where he could learn to become an aircraft mechanic. 
 
Ndjami had to go through a rigorous 1,800-hour course, going to school six hours a day for four days a week, in order to graduate from the program.  After graduating, he then had to pass three written, practical, and oral exams so that he could obtain his aircraft mechanics license.
 
Ndjami passed all of his exams and received his license, but he knew that was just a stepping stone for him.
 
"When I went to aviation mechanic school, it wasn't that I was thinking I was going to have a great job doing that," he said.  "It was more motivation that I didn't want to be sitting at home like my other friends from high school who were just hanging around town going to clubs and stuff like that all the time. 
 
"I didn't want that for myself.  I wanted something better. I didn't know what that was yet, but I was having fun.  I liked working on planes.  The reason I like aviation is because it defies gravity and it's a profession where you have to be on your toes because if you make a mistake it could cost lives." 
 
After discovering his passion for aviation, Ndjami decided that he would apply to Embry-Riddle, the No. 1 school for aviation in the country.
 
"By some miracle," Ndjami said with a smile on his face, "I got in."
 
After moving from Cameroon to the United States, overcoming a language barrier, and dealing with the disappointment of not being able to attend college, Ben-Joel Ndjami was finally able to live out his dream and the dream his parents had for him when them moved him and his siblings to the U.S.
 
"After I took an 18-hour train ride with my parents, I finally got here and the school was beautiful," Ndjami stated.  "I loved the school because it was all aviation, no distractions. I wanted to be focused.  I wanted to be immersed in what I wanted to become.  I loved that there were pilots, aerospace engineers, all kinds of people…it's really a multifunctional university.  It's perfect."
 
Ndjami got settled in Daytona Beach as his parents went back to Maryland.  But just one week later another setback occurred: his student loan did not go through and all of his classes were dropped. 
 
"I called my parents and said 'I don't think I'm going to make it,'" Ndjami said.  "But my parents went into their savings account and then borrowed even more money so that I could go to school."
 
With all of those issues worked out, Ndjami completed his first year of school at ERAU, majoring in Aircraft Maintenance Science.  Once the school year was over he did not want to spend his summer back home, though.  He instead decided to spend his time in Florida, sleeping on his cousin's couch and working as an aircraft mechanic at the Aero-American School of Aviation. 
 
"I wanted to stay here because I knew that's where my future was.  It's where I had to be to succeed," Ndjami explained.
 
Ndjami worked at the company until it went bankrupt and then began working for American Aviation, Inc. until school started.
 
Once his second year of school began, Ndjami decided that he would take further advantage of his opportunities at Embry-Riddle and try to get involved on campus as much as he possibly could. 
 
"After I got let go from my job, I was full of motivation and ready to prove that I had value and self worth," he said.  "I took a member at-large placard for SGA and joined a bunch of clubs trying to be better person.  I was just pushing myself and working very hard and asking questions in class.  My teachers love me."
 
Ndjami also joined the PIKE fraternity and eventually took on the position of leadership chair, which is responsible for holding others accountable and motivating the fraternity brothers through public speaking.  He has fully embraced that opportunity to use his personal story to inspire others.
 
"It was awesome standing in front of 60 people and inspiring them to be better and do better," said Ndjami.  "I told them my experience and let them know that if I could get into this university, we could all do great things and be better people."
 
It was also in Ndjami's second year at ERAU that he discovered his interest in business and decided to double major in both Aircraft Maintenance Science and Business Administration.  He ended up doing an undergraduate research project on corporate finance with the Ignite Research Program and decided to partake in a corporate finance internship in Miami last summer.
 
Many students would be content with joining one or two on-campus organizations, but Ndjami is involved so many extracurricular activities that it is hard for someone who is on the outside looking in to keep up with them all.  Ndjami says it is his parents, the ones who made all of these opportunities possible for him 10 years ago, that motivate him to stay involved.
 
"What's pushing me is that my parents sacrificed so much for me to be here that I don't want to disappoint them," he said.  "I want to make them proud.  That's what keeps me from being lazy."
 
This school year Ndjami has really been able to see the fruits of his labor.  He went to Embry-Riddle's career expo and landed an interview with CIT Aerospace, a company that leases and finances aircraft. He also landed an interview with Boeing. 
 
Ndjami recently found out that he was offered an intern position with both companies.
 
"I thought to myself, 'My life has just changed,'" he said.  "I went from the guy who was struggling, to having all these awesome companies saying, 'Hey we want you to come work for us."
 
As a cheerleader, Ndjami can help inspire the Eagles' home crowd and the players on the court.  But his journey can help inspire and give hope to so many more people who are struggling and think their dreams are out of reach. 
 
"I feel like someone gave me a second chance," he said.  "I want to be better.  I want to keep improving myself, challenge myself, keep pushing myself.  Before I die I want to reach my full potential.  I want to be happy that someone gave me a chance and that I delivered.  I want to have made things happen and inspire people because I added value to myself. I want to give back to others by giving them words of wisdom and let them know they have a chance. 
 
"The reason I'm telling my story is because if there's ever someone somewhere thinking that they can't make it, if they see my story it could inspire them.  I needed inspiration once in a while."