This year’s Miss Africa USA returned to her old northeast Indiana school this fall with a message of gratitude about a month after earning her crown.

Diana-Melissa Ngoumape joined Warsaw Community Schools as a 12-year-old sixth grader who had fled war in her home country of Central African Republic, the district said in a news release.

She knew no English when she began classes at Jefferson Elementary in Winona Lake more than a decade ago, but she quickly began to learn and thrive with the support of teacher Angela Luecke, then-Principal David Robertson and other staff members, the release said.

“They invested in me, and I just want to say thank you,” Ngoumape said in a statement about her visit to Jefferson last month. “Warsaw really set the stage for who I am today.”

Ngoumape was cro

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