While many of his classmates waited for their parents or guardians to give them tuition every semester, Julius Avoki toiled to attain an education.

When he was about to join secondary school in 2003, his father passed away. Avoki knew then that his mother was incapable of seeing him through school. He was aware that the only way to acquire an education would be through hard labour.
“I started sweeping classrooms at school, cleaning and painting so that I could be allowed to stay in school,” Avoki says.
His peers looked down on him as a failure in life but he never stopped to work. His perseverance got him through secondary school.
The memory of registration at UCU still lingers in his mind. In 2006, when he was set to join university, Avoki had only shs200,000 which he paid in to pursue his studies at a university that his high school director of studies had recommended.
“I remember my bank slip thrown away because I had not paid half of what I had to pay,” Avoki says. The pain and embarrassment moved him to pick his luggage and leave but was only stopped by a friend who advised him not to quit until he could raise enough money to register in time.
Avoki went to see a cousin who is a stage manager at Kajjansi to help him find a job to pay his university tuition. His cousin introduced him to a committee which later allowed Avoki to work as a tax conductor. He started to work on weekends and later used his holiday time to fill in for other days.
 “My friends know me as someone who does not get embarrassed for doing odd jobs,” Avoki says.
Not only has he acquired tuition from a job that many students may consider odd, but he has been able pay his hostel rent and buy a few belongings.
The job was challenging for Avoki when he started out. He had to strike a balance between  his books and delivering at work.
His workmates at times thought that he was lying to them that he was a university student. For those who believed him, expected the best out of him and never expected him to fault at anything. 
Others fear working with him because they think that he has a lot of money while others don’t see a need for getting an education.
“They sometimes say they do not see why they should go to school when they see me working as a conductor,” he says.
There have been times when his classmates find him on job and not expected him to charge them for the tax fare.
“I have  been torn between letting them pay their taxi fare and letting them go without paying,” he says.
While he was doing his teacher training at one of the schools in town, his students would see him working as a conductor during the weekend and yet see him in class on Monday. He says he knew this questioned his authority as a teacher to these young people.
After graduation, Avoki hopes to teach and become a headmaster of his own school one day.
“I want to own a taxi as a remembrance of what paved my way through school,” he adds.
Avoki looks back at his time at UCU and says he has been groomed into a principled and godly man. He looks forward to the day he will be given a chance to work at UCU.
He graduates with a second class upper  and he will be the first person in his family to get a bachelors degree.
Avoki grew up in Catholic home and he served as an altar boy at Lweza Parish.
He is the second last born in the family of 13 children. He went to St. Kizito Primary School Kisubi and to Bishop Sisto Mazzoldi for his O’ and A’ level.
To students he advises; use every opportunity you have to go through school. Do not undermine any job that will help you to go through school.