enlarge Doug Jones/Staff Photographer

UNE student Bosco Oringa fled Sudan with his grandmother and made his way to America in 2005. She watches as he tells his story recently.

BIDDEFORD — Bosco Oringa was just a boy when he fled his native Sudan on foot with his grandmother and two cousins. They walked for a week to a refugee camp in Uganda, where he spent 10 years. He was separated from his mother, and his father had been killed years earlier in a civil war.

Oringa attended crowded schools, sometimes crouching under a tree while he waited for a teacher to come outside to share the lesson.

Today, Oringa is a freshman at the University of New England, studying to be a doctor.

By afternoon, he runs with the cross country team, showing flashes of remarkable natural ability that his coach believes might one day make him the best runner in the conference.

He will share his story if asked, but most days Oringa blends into the countryside while running in silence with his teammates, flashing a joyful smile when provoked, then heading to his dorm to study for his future.

Oringa also has his mother on his mind. He feared he would never see her again, but she was located by family friends a few years ago at Kynangwali, a United Nations refugee camp in northern Uganda. He is in the process of trying to appeal a decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security denying a request to allow his mother to join him.

"Very few kids on the team know his story," said UNE cross country coach Ron Ouellette. "I call him my diamond in the rough."

Oringa was named the Commonwealth Coast Conference Rookie of the Week on Sept. 29 after turning in a career-best 8-kilometer time of 30 minutes, 38 seconds. Oringa trains with UNE's No. 2, 3 and 4 runners, but Ouellette said that "eventually he will go out with our No. 1 guy. He's that good."

Oringa said he runs for solace.

"Running calms your mind," he said. "When you are thinking too much and you go and run, your mind gets open."

Oringa came to Maine in 2005 and enrolled at Portland High School, where he entered the school's mentor program. He was paired with Charlie Roscoe, a retired accountant, and quickly impressed Roscoe with his work ethic.

"His English skills were very weak, but he was very highly motivated," Roscoe said. "I consider myself very lucky to have gotten to know him."

As his English improved, Oringa learned to handle the family finances. He also scheduled appointments with doctors and handled child care for his cousins.

He lives in a small apartment in East Deering with his grandmother, Franseska Achiro, who speaks no English, and his cousin, Jen.

As Oringa approached the end of his high school years, Roscoe drove him on visits to nearly every college in Maine, helping him decide on a school where he could run and pursue a degree that would lead to medical school.

Oringa said his interest in medicine was sparked when he broke his leg playing soccer in Uganda and had to wait nearly a week for a visit from a doctor. He said he would like to return to Sudan one day to practice medicine.

"I talk to him once or twice a week and he's always upbeat," said Roscoe. "He's taking biology and chemistry, math, English and art. He certainly wants to succeed."

Oringa communicates with his mother, Esther Lamwora, by cell phone about once a month. He arranges a time with a family friend to get his mother access to a cell phone in the Uganda refugee camp. They speak for just a few minutes.

"It's hard for her to hear my voice," Oringa said. "But she tells me to keep doing a good job and work hard in school."

He said he was given no reason for why his request for her to come over was denied in 2006, and will agree to DNA testing if necessary -- anything to be reunited with his mother.

Oringa and Roscoe received some good news Tuesday in an e-mail from U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office that suggested he can move forward with the appeal process.

"We have been notified by the Department of Homeland Security that a request...