LEWISTON – Youth aspirations are important to Alazar Zewede, who has returned to his old high school to tutor other Somali students.

Zewede, 21, is a 2004 graduate of Lewiston High School, now studying international business at Husson College.

But some of his Somali classmates did not go to college.

“I want to change that,” he said.

So, twice a week he tutors at the high school. He also plans to hold college application workshops for immigrant students learning English.

Even if they begin by taking one class in culinary arts, liberal arts or accounting, it’s important that they start, he said.

This summer he and Isha Mahamud, a fellow 2004 graduate who attends Smith College in Massachusetts, formed the Somali Student Union.

The group will encourage Somali youths in Lewiston-Auburn to do well in school and go to college.

“Education is very important, very important,” Zewede said.

“Without education you can’t go anywhere.

“If you get your high school diploma, what are you going to do? Probably work at Burger King. You’re not going to have a good-paying job.”

He wants to help because he’s been where a lot of the Somali students now are.

When Zewede came to the United States from Ethiopia in 1997, he couldn’t speak English. One of his parents was Ethiopian, the other Somali. His family came to the United States because the educational system was better, he said.

His first year at Lewiston High School was uneventful. But in 2002, when former Mayor Larry Raymond wrote the infamous letter asking Somalis to slow their migration to Lewiston, the school atmosphere changed, Zewede said.

“There were so many rumors. It was unbelievable. We said, ‘Enough is enough. We have to do something.'”

To challenge rumors that all Somalis were on welfare, given free housing and free cars, civil rights students spoke to every English class within a three-day period.

They matched the rumors with facts: Many Somalis work.

“They do not receive free cars,” he said.

Some prejudice lingers, but “the situation at Lewiston High improved dramatically,” Zewede said.

After college he plans to return to Africa as a volunteer helping to develop communities and businesses.