Recent graduate Sabrin Khalif is ensuring her parents’ sacrifices weren’t in vain.
According to CBS News, Khalif has earned not only a high school diploma from Irondale High School in New Brighton, MN, but also an Associate of Liberal Arts and Sciences degree from nearby Anoka-Ramsey Community College. This feat holds emotional weight considering her parents, who were raised in Somalia, never had a chance to finish school even at the elementary level. The pair moved to the United States in hopes of creating a better life.
“All of the aspirations my parents wanted, it’s now set on me,” Khalif told the outlet. “Not only to fulfill it, but also to show them that all of their sacrifices, everything that they gave up on, they’re able to say, ‘Hey, it was actually worth it.'”
What’s Next?
Looking ahead, Khalif intends to further her studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in Minneapolis-St. Paul and will be pursuing a bachelor’s in human physiology and a bachelor’s in public health with a focus on pre-med. Her overarching goal is to become a surgeon and move to Somalia to address healthcare disparities there.
“Growing up, I would hear stories come back from home, people who had such simple illnesses that couldn’t be cured,” Khalif explained, according to CBS News. “Things that I could go to the hospital and just get a simple shot for, and I can live my life. We have the worst child mortality rates back home, for something as simple as influenza or malaria. And it’s up to people who are Somali to go back to our country and to fix it, to save lives and to make sure that no child doesn’t get to live to see their next birthday for something so simple as a measles shot.”
Khalif also aspires to launch a nonprofit, which will energize interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for high school students by connecting them with doctors, engineers, and scientists.
“I know that it’s very difficult to put yourself out there and cold call and cold email a bunch of doctors and be like, ‘Hey, can I be able to shadow you? Can I work with you? Can I get volunteer hours?’ And I know it’s difficult for me, and the last thing I want to do is to make it difficult for another person and for them to think that their dreams and their aspirations don’t matter,” Khalif mentioned to the outlet.
