06/01/2011
By
By Jennifer Myers, Lowell SunLOWELL -- Two months ago Vinicius Diniz, a native of Brazil, became an American citizen.
The next day he became a married man.
Yesterday he, and 2,570 of his peers, became graduates of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Diniz, living 4,000 miles away from his family, worked his way through college as a bus boy and waiter at the Capital Grille in Burlington. His parents traveled to the United States for the first time to see their son receive the electrical engineering degree he worked so hard to earn.
"When I came to the U.S., I thought and believed it was the greatest country in the world," said Diniz, of Billerica. "I brought these expectations to UMass Lowell. What I once believed, I now know to be true.