By Paula Limba, Nursing

On Friday, October 2, Ahmed Abbass and I sat down in the Captain’s House to

videotape the first interview in a series of five-minute interviews with international

students.

Ahmed, who is from Iraq, was born in Baghdad. When he was two his family

moved to KirKuk, where they lived for 5 years. His family then moved to Karbala where

they lived until 2005 when they moved to Syria because of the war.

In 2008 Ahmed and his family finally made it to the United States with the help of

the United Nations. Ahmed graduated from Portland High School in 2011 “as the oldest

student in his class,” with dreams of becoming a doctor. As English is not Ahmed first

language, he had to learn it as an ESL student at Portland High School, which was

necessary for him to improve his language skills in order to enroll and graduate from

SMCC.

Last May, Ahmed saw his hard work pay off. He remains enrolled at SMCC

taking biology classes. As one of Ahmed’s dreams is being a doctor, he also has other

dreams: being married and having a family. As education remains important to him,

Ahmed would like to see his future children be enrolled here at SMCC, “where they

would get what they want to become perfect in any subject.” That is one of his wishes

for his future generation.

The half an hour I had with Ahmed was amazing and fun. We joked and laughed

to the point where I thought my ribs had cracked. It was a good experience to get to

know his story and share with the SMCC community. For those who want to watch the

videotaped interview with Ahmed, please look for it on the Beacon WordPress and

Facebook web sites.