Personal Journeys: The New American

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Luma Mufleh had lost her way, but then she took a wrong turn in Clarkston and found her purpose among the children of war.

Luma Mufleh waits for students at Fugees Academy to board the bus for soccer practice. Her road from Jordan to Clarkston began with a wrong turn, literally and figuratively.

Luma uses a broom to illustrate the "sweeper" position in soccer. She has two requirements for enrolling in the tuition-free Fugees Academy: Children must be refugees and their families must live below the poverty line. Most come from countries at war.

Luma, then 29, with her younger sister Inam. Inam said her big sister set high expectations for her and her siblings.

Eight-year-old Luma, (second from left) sits beside her mother, Sawsan al-Mufleh, and her nanny, Janice Brooms (third from right), at the Trevi Fountain in Rome on a family vacation.

Luma, 10, dressed for a costume party. She went to private school with Queen Noor of Jordan's children.

Luma plays with 2-year-old Johann Tendon at the Fugees Supper Club. Luma hatched the supper club idea after a student's mother had trouble paying rent. Families take turns preparing the meal and keep the proceeds from the monthly event.

Luma begins her day at 7:30 a.m. and ends it around 7 p.m. most school days. She coaches weekends. Soccer practice after-school doesn't feel like work, she says. "It's the highlight of my day.

It's Aoci Pillpilli's turn to serve as a cashier for the monthly Fugees Supper Club. Luma recently added a trivia game to the night.

Lewis Makor, a senior at Tucker High School, was on the first Fugees team. He coaches one of the school's teams and plans to go to college next fall." (Luma) always says to me, 'Dream big'," he says.

Luma sits in her spartan office at Clarkston United Methodist Church where Fugees Academy rents space. Luma has plans to build a permanent school for 280 boys and girls.

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Luma Mufleh waits for students at Fugees Academy to board the bus for soccer practice. Her road from Jordan to Clarkston began with a wrong turn, literally and figuratively.

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