Coming Home

This post is written by Salma Ahmedin.

Salma serves as a Health Educator at Heartland Health Center - Uplift/Wilson.

I grew up in the capital of Ethiopia. When I migrated to Chicago, I spoke no English and had to learn the rich language of this country starting in my freshman year of high school. My parents registered me to attend Uplift Community High School due to its closeness to home.  To be honest, I did not really agree with my parents' decision because the school had only been in existence for one year, and I wanted to attend a school that had a better reputation.

In fall 2006, I was officially enrolled and ready to start high school at Uplift. Since I had language barriers, silence was my main form of communication with others. Learning English became more complicated as the semesters went on. In order to deal with inability to communicate adequately with my classmates and teachers, I started to get involved in various extracurricular activities. These after school programs enabled me to grow my passion for community service and helping those in need.

As the years went on, my appreciation for Uplift started to come alive, and before I knew it, the school had become my second home. When classes ended, I would spend much of my time at tutoring sessions and enhancing my involvement through participation in after school programs. My unrepeatable journey at Uplift, however, ended in 2010, and it was time for me to head to college.

Attending a high school in a neighborhood with very limited amount of resources taught me that I should help those in need through service so they too can move forward. Uplift is a school predominantly attended by african americans from low income backgrounds. When I graduated from Uplift in 2010, the school awarded diplomas to only 81 students. More interesting yet is that only 5% of us who graduated from Uplift actually have college degrees. My community is underserved, and if I do not contribute to it's betterment, who will?

In 2010, I walked in the hallways of Uplift as a student. And today, I walk around the same hallways that I did four years ago to be the change that I want to affect. Since my migration to this country, I have learned a new language, graduated from high school and attended a respected college in Chicago. I have committed myself to proudly serve with AmeriCorps to disperse my Public Health knowledge that I have acquired through my college studies while being a source of inspiration to others. Specifically, I chose Uplift as my host site because I want current Uplift students to be influenced, not by my achievements, but by my strength to overcome the hardships that have tried to get in the way of my success.