When Amarachi Okafor, Stillman College’s valedictorian, addressed her graduating class, she told them to be resilient and remember the mantra “I shall prevail.”

“Let us be the generation that doesn’t wait for change, we create it,” Okafor said to 120 graduates at commencement on May 10.

She and her sister, class salutatorian Chinazam, stayed very busy during their years at Stillman. They created two student organizations, built a study app for students and worked on a solution to detect lead in pipes.

They say lessons learned at the college will help propel them forward in graduate studies and careers.

The Okafor sisters are first-generation college students hailing from Lagos, Nigeria. Stillman’s fall 2024 enrollment was 731, including 25 international students.

Attending the same school was not originally part of their career plan, according to 23-year-old Amarachi and 24-year-old Chinazam. But their paths led both to Tuscaloosa.

“I just feel like being at another school wouldn’t have provided the same benefits, especially with our relationship as sisters,” Chinazam said.

Amarachi, who majored in journalism and minored in business administration, said in her speech that attending Stillman and leaving “everything that gave us structure and comfort” was shaky at first.

“I was filled with self-doubt and a loneliness that I didn’t know how to shake,” she said.

Amarachi told AL.com she struggled with depression and felt there was a “greater sense of community” at home in Nigeria, while “here there’s more individualism.”

Chinazam, who studied business administration, founded Stillman’s first international student club in 2023. She gathered 20 signatures to start the organization, and now the club boasts students from the Bahamas, Kenya and the Dominican Republic.The students discuss issues such as financial aid and visa status. They share their favorite foods with the Stillman community.

“That helped us form a bond,” Chinazam said.

The sisters and classmate Precious Onah were HBCU Smart Cities Fellows with the Pathway Community Foundation. They presented real-world solutions for pressing issues in North Carolina.

The trio worked with Rocky Mount’s government and were tasked with providing solutions to the city’s water service. They devised an analyzer that helped field workers detect lead within water pipes.

Chinazam also co-founded the college’s first cybersecurity club. The organization wasn’t just a student interest group. The group actively recruited new students to study business administration with a concentration in cybersecurity.

Meanwhile, Amarachi volunteered to teach Tuscaloosa children gardening and had 10 internships during her college career. Her most exciting internship was at Apple in New York.

“I’m a city girl, so it was really exciting to work in a company with a huge tech base,” she said. She gained perspective on how even small teams are important to the overall company mission.

Amarachi is interning this summer at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance while Chinazam will attend HBCU Venture Cities, a venture capital startup school that will assist with yet another endeavor by her, Amarachi and Onah – an app called MyFocalPal.

The app helps students find study partners by matching them with other students with similar interests. MyFocalPal won the River Pitch competition in Tuscaloosa in 2024.

In the fall, the sisters plan on attending Carnegie Mellon University for graduate school. And, no, that wasn’t planned either. They applied to different schools. In fact, they were both accepted into Columbia University, but Carnegie Mellon offered the best financial aid package.

Amarachi described Chinazam as “fierce.”

“She knows what she wants when she steps into a room, and she specifically goes for it. She’s unafraid of just being her authentic self and just getting what she wants,” Amarachi said.

Chinazam described her sister as a “go-getter.”

“She’s really ambitious, and she has goals that she hopes to achieve,” Chinazam said. “She’s done really great things, and I’m really proud of her.”

Towards the end of Amarachi’s valedictorian speech, she encouraged the graduating class to prevail during difficult times.

“Now, as we look ahead, it’s okay to admit that the future feels uncertain,” she said. “We’re stepping into a world that’s fast-changing, unpredictable, and in many ways unfair. But we’re also stepping into it with something powerful: our voice, our education, and our values.”