Growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, Anthony Githere moved through school with unusual speed. By the time Anthony reached the 9th grade, he found himself sitting next to his brother Gilbert, who was 2 years older than him. “He skipped grades and caught up to me quickly,” Gilbert said. “Then he passed me!”

In his late teens, Anthony won a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Budapest, a course taught entirely in Hungarian. Gilbert said his brother didn’t speak the language before entering the program. “But he became fluent and qualified as a doctor,” Gilbert said.

Anthony returned to Kenya and earned a masters degree in public health before opening his own clinic. Many of his impoverished patients couldn’t afford to pay so he treated them for free. But then he couldn’t pay the rent and had to close down.

“After that he really wanted to see what else he could learn for his community,” Gilbert said. “So he moved to America to gain a PhD.” Anthony moved to New York in 1991; his wife and four children stayed behind on the family farm. In recent years, he’d been working hospital jobs while still trying to get the accreditation needed to practice medicine.