Loading ...From war zone to safe zone
Geoge Mason Univeristy
Most of what Meena Alzamani remembers about that night in March 2003 in her native Baghdad is the explosions and the screaming.
The explosions came from U.S. bombs detonating nearby at the start of the Iraq war. The screams were hers.
“I was screaming. I was crying. I was shaking,” recalled Alzamani, a George Mason University freshman who was 6 when the war began. “My dad was holding me because the bombing was really loud and everything was shaking.”
After escaping to Jordan and then moving to the United States with her family (first Florida and now Virginia), Alzamani said she is determined not to waste the opportunity to live in a stable environment and study at a university she called “a smart choice that will help me with my future.”
Alzamani, a chemistry major, said she wants to be a pediatrician, surgeon or dentist and perhaps work with Doctors Without Borders. She also hopes to start a nonprofit organization to help the homeless in Washington, D.C.
“She tries hard, and it shows in her grades,” said George Mason chemistry professor John Schreifils, who had Alzamani in two classes. “She is a pleasure to have in class.”
Still, “Iraq stays with me every single day,” Alzamani said.
When the bombs dropped, Alzamani said her father, who worked for the U.S. Army in Iraq as a contractor, gave his three children MP3 players with downloaded music and headphones to help drown out the noise.
There were the bullet holes through the front door of the family home, the four-hour drive across the desert to Jordan and the family’s move to the States through a United Nations relocation program.
“I’m very lucky I got here,” Alzamani said. “So many of my family members are still in Iraq, still suffering. It keeps me motivated.”
So on those days when Alzamani feels she doesn’t have the energy to complete her lab work, she reassesses.
“That’s like me being ungrateful for my opportunity,” she said.
“The reason I picked George Mason is everyone here is motivated, everyone has a plan in mind,” Alzamani said. “They want to go somewhere in life. That really appeals to me.”
Source: www2.gmu.edu