Loading ...Arab American Commencement Speaker tells UMass Graduates: Embrace Diversity
Martin T. Meehan, president of the UMass system, listens as Elkhansaa Elguenaoui gives her speech at the commencement in Amherst.
By Christina Bagni
Boston Globe
UMass Amherst chose Medford resident Elkhansaa Elguenaoui, a first-generation Arab American, as the student speaker at its May 6 commencement.
Her parents immigrated to the United States from Morocco separately and met in Boston. As Elguenaoui grew up in Medford, she and her family would often spend summers in Morocco, where she met most of her family and came to know the culture.
“I had a combination of both cultures at home,” Elguenaoui said. “I’m very aware of the world, and that it isn’t all that pretty everywhere. Places suffer, both domestically and overseas, from famine, war . . . these are strong realities that plague the world.”
This consciousness, she said, led her to pursue a career in medicine. She majored in neuroscience and psychology with a minor in biology in hopes to give back directly to people in need.
During her time at UMass Amherst, Elguenaoui was the president of the Muslim Student Association. She also spent two months abroad in Turkey, where she split time between interning at a hospital and teaching English to elementary school students.
“I was able to talk to nurses and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing and how it works,” said Elguenaoui, who was able to observe many aspects of the hospital, from the ICU to the ER to surgery. “It was a daytime internship, but we also hung out with the nurses after, and got invited to dinner with the doctors.”
She was pleasantly surprised by the hospitality offered from everyone she met. When she taught English, it was Ramadan, a month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Families of her students often invited her to their nighttime feasts.
“A lot of families came from different backgrounds,” she said. “The hospitality didn’t change, despite their financial situations. They would give all they had. They would invite us to dinner, despite the fact that none of us spoke Turkish or were Turkish. There was a brotherhood and sisterhood; there was an automatic connection to people.”
During her commencement speech, Elguenaoui focused on the people she had met during her time in college.
“I had so much to be grateful for,” Elguenaoui said. “Amherst was more about people I met along the way. They were diverse, outside and in. Students, professors, athletes, they all added to my experience.”
After a summer spent backpacking through Europe with friends, Elguenaoui plans to work in neuroscience research and someday attend medical school.
Her top advice for students beginning their college journey is to step out of their comfort zone.
“It’s hard not to, in college,” she added. “Meet people you never thought you’d get along with. Once you give college all you have, and don’t hold back, you’ll be surprised what you get out of it. Experience the good and the failures: the heartbreak, the happiness, the success. Go in with an open mind and an open heart.”