The next stop for Nana Agyen, who graduates today from Free State High School, will be Kansas University. Agyen moved here last year from Ghana to complete high school.

She had moved across the Atlantic Ocean to Kansas for her senior year.

Instead of finishing her last year of high school at a Ghana boarding school, Nana Agyen was a Free State High School student.

She knew no one and wasn’t even familiar with how American school days were structured. At lunch time, in front of a group of strangers, Agyen needed a friendly face.

She quickly found two students who assisted her.

“Free State was so big. I felt really small, but they kind of helped me through lunch,” Agyen said.

She had to make some adjustments after attending school most of her life in Ghana, but Agyen caught on quickly, excelled in academics and will graduate at 1 p.m. Sunday with her Free State classmates at Allen Fieldhouse.

Agyen moved to Lawrence in August from Accra, Ghana, to attend one year of school before starting college at Kansas University. She was born in Minnesota but moved with her family when she was 5 to Ghana, where her father worked with the World Bank.

“She’s such a well-adjusted kid, you really wouldn’t know that she had gone through all those transitions,” said Chuck Law, who had Agyen in an American history class. “She has one of those personalities that just allows her to roll with whatever it is that she’s encountered.”

This year, Agyen relied on support from classmates, teachers and school counselor Betty Lynn to adjust back to American life. Most of all, she benefited from the wisdom of her aunt, Elizabeth Asiedu, a KU economics associate professor, who was her guardian for the year.

“She basically taught me how to live here. It wasn’t easy at all. I had to adjust to so many levels here,” said Agyen, who can switch between her African and American accents.

Asiedu and her husband, Richard Peasah, helped Agyen form strict study habits and balance fast-food jobs with school work. Her report cards have been filled with As.

“Regardless of where she’s from, she’s someone who would be a good role model for any student,” said Alice Karakas, who had Agyen in her American literature class.

Agyen is looking forward to getting started on her general education requirements because she has no idea about her major. Her Free State teachers expect her to be successful in any field.

Agyen said she thrived in the high school environment that was “more laid back” compared to her boarding school experience, where the daily schedule was more strict.

“I feel like I learned just as much, but I also added what I learned back home to here,” she said.

She has been away from her parents, Kofi Agyen and Joyce Osei, her sister, Michelle, and her brother, Reginald, this year, but that part was less of an adjustment because she was also away from them at boarding school although for a shorter time.

She’s glad both to be back in the United States and to have the experience living in Africa.

“Basically learning more about my culture, learning my language, learning the things that we do there,” she said.

Law said Agyen’s successful transition at Free State also was a testament to the friendly environment the students and staff have created.

“I think that’s one of the really outstanding features of this school and one of the outstanding features of the whole Lawrence community,” he said.