07.07.2021

Meet Ibrahim, Class of 2021 Graduate

By Marc McCord

Ibrahim Mohammed is a youth who works with Treehouse Education Specialist, Nicole Henson. As a newly graduated member of the Class of 2021, Ibrahim was featured at Treehouse’s 2021 Graduation Spotlight.

Moderated by Treehouse’s Chief Development Officer, Maya Hemachandra, and other Treehouse community members, the discussion between Ibrahim and Nicole was a shining example of how our staff partner with youth to support them in their goals of graduation and beyond.

Nicole and Ibrahim, who first met via Friends of Youth, meet bright and early every Wednesday morning. When the two meet, they check in on Ibrahim’s schoolwork and grades. The two also use this time for communicating with Ibrahim’s teachers.

Ibrahim is an outstanding young man. His perseverance, responsibility, and knack for self-advocacy make him stand out. Ibrahim’s favorite hobbies include badminton and cooking. Another impressive fact about Ibrahim, revealed during the spotlight, is that he speaks five languages: Rohingya, Bengali, Indonesian, Hindi, and English!

After beginning to learn English just three years ago when he started high school, he’s now taking on a new goal – adding Spanish to his impressive list of languages. According to Nicole, one of Ibrahim’s best attributes is his ability to guide his own education. Nicole says, “he was always the one driving and I got to sit in the passenger seat and watch it all.”

The last year provided many difficulties but Ibrahim and Nicole were able to lean into their partnership as a support system to keep Ibrahim on the track to graduate. This support system includes Refugees NW, Lutheran Community Services, a peer tutor, and Ms. Chow, his high school English Language Learners teacher.

Ibrahim is driven by the fact that he didn’t have the opportunity to go to school where he grew up. He considers being the first person from his family to graduate high school to be a great honor. Balancing work and school left Ibrahim facing many late nights, but he accepted this challenge with an optimistic attitude.

The difficult year culminated in Ibrahim walking the stage with much of his support system in attendance, though many virtually. Ibrahim is looking forward to starting college in the fall at Washington State University.

This didn’t come easy. This took a whole year of school applications, scholarship applications, and planning for the move to Pullman. Ibrahim’s plans for the future are to study biochemistry and move on to work in the medical field – specifically vaccine development.

Ibrahim will most definitely leave a mark in our world and further will encourage others that with some support, youth can achieve anything they put their minds to.

To learn more about Treehouse’s program Graduation Success, visit: treehouseforkids.org/graduation-success.

 

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