A Leap of Faith: African Immigrant Finds New Home at USU

By Ian Neligh

When war came to Rwanda in the 1990s, United States Air Force 2nd Lt. Jean Bertrand Kalima was only a child. 

United States Air Force 2nd Lt. Jean Bertrand Kalima
(Photo credit: Tom Balfour, USU)

He says his family moved away to escape the violence.

They arrived at the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then called Zaire, but the conflict spilled over and ultimately
caused another war. Kalima says his family then went to Zambia before traveling to Kenya, a country he would call home until he decided to come to the United States looking for a better opportunity.

Kalima recently became a student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and is studying to become a military physician.

“I’m one of the fortunate few who have the chance to walk into an incoming class at USU,” Kalima says. “I’m incredibly grateful.”

Kalima has lived in the U.S. for nine years, immigrating in 2013 to Dayton, Ohio. He says getting a good education and finding a solid job were both prime motivating factors in his move to the U.S.

“There were more opportunities in the U.S. than in Kenya — even though I’d grown up in Kenya,” says Kalima. “… So I thought why not take a leap of faith and move to the U.S.?”

A New Country

Kalima admits transitioning to his new country was relatively easy and added his first goal was to finish college.

“I would say that it wasn’t a very difficult transition because, not only did I know the language, but I met some very wonderful people at Wright State University,” Kalima says. “… I had some very good professors who were supportive academically. I would say what was difficult, perhaps, was the winter. It was too cold.”

Kalima adds within a couple of months, it felt like he’d been living in the U.S. for years.

“I just got used to it really quickly,” Kalima says.

He majored in accounting and finance but that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

“I just didn’t feel like it was my calling; I just felt like there was something else that I could do,” Kalima says. “I kept an open mind that later, if things seemed to change, or if I felt like I was gravitating toward something else, then I should pursue that.”

Military Medicine

Kalima’s older brother, who works as a doctor in Germany, helped to inspire him to want to pursue a career in medicine.

“I would always talk to him and just find it fascinating when he explained what he did, how he enjoyed it, and for some reason, I just gravitated to people who were in medicine,” Kalima says. “It was amazing because, despite the fatigue and stressful nature of going through medical school, and of going through residency, they were always happy because they loved what they were doing.”

He says he soon grew tired of sitting at a desk and working in front of a computer having what he described as essentially, “meetings every hour or so, just talking about spreadsheets.”

The time to make a change had come.

“Even though my job was a really good job, and paid well — I just felt like I needed to make a decision before my next promotion, so I decided to let my boss know I was thinking about leaving the company,” Kalima says. “At that time, I didn’t even have the prerequisites for medical school.”

Kalima says he thought working in medicine would present him with the opportunity to help people when they were at their most vulnerable.

“(I want to) help them navigate some of these difficult questions about their health, about life — I just felt that was where I needed to be,” Kalima says.

In 2019, he began taking the classes he needed for his prerequisites and, after speaking with a friend who applied to USU, decided that would be the perfect fit for him.

Kalima applied to several medical schools but he dropped everything as soon as he got a call from USU notifying him of his acceptance.

“I thought of it as ‘I got this opportunity to come to the U.S., a chance to study at ‘the nation’s medical school’ who wouldn’t want to do that?” Kalima says. “As someone who’d come and immigrated from a different country? I didn’t have second thoughts. I just went with USU.”

United States Air Force 2nd Lt. Jean Bertrand Kalima says his family moved away from Rwanda to escape the violence when he was a child. He is currently enrolled at USU to become a doctor and says he's grateful for the opportunity. (Photo credit: Ian Neligh, USU)

A New Home

Kalima attended the United States Air Force Officer Training School located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

“I admired the qualities that I saw in some of our training officers like discipline,” Kalima says. “Most people would say it was ‘hell’ the first few weeks — but it was all for a good reason: it was to mold us to become better officers.”

According to Kalima, there he learned about Air Force doctrine, and how to lead others.

“I had a lot of fun. Not only did I learn more about the history of the military, the history of the Air Force, but it also pushed me to do things that I never thought I would do,” Kalima says. “My very first week I got there they asked me if I was ‘confident’ and if I said ‘no’ it might not look good but if I said ‘yes’ I didn’t know what was awaiting me. So I just said yes — and they made me the flight leader.”

Kalima says he greatly enjoyed the opportunity and responsibility of leading a team of colleagues and meeting new people.

“That’s why I say it was fun for me — I met some really wonderful people,” Kalima says.

He says he’s grateful now for the opportunity to attend USU’s medical school and feels fortunate to be among the university’s new students.

“It has been an incredible last couple of years,” he says. “I’ve enjoyed, and am still enjoying, my almost nine years in the U.S., and I hope to continue enjoying my years here because now this is where I call home.”