from Fatima Lopez, Development Director, National Immigration Forum
Growing up in Afghanistan, Auranous Abhar was taught the alphabet by her older sister in their family living room because girls were prohibited from attending school. She came to the United States as a refugee in 2000, along with her parents and eight siblings.
The girl who spoke no English upon entering this country has just graduated as the valedictorian of her high school class.
Auranous attributes her drive and work ethic to her father, who died of lung cancer in 2005. “Education meant a lot to him. He didn’t want his kids to be stuck in Afghanistan, where his kids, especially his daughters, couldn’t go to school,” she says of her father, a surgeon and humanitarian worker who had been imprisoned by the Taliban before bringing his family to the United States.
Auranous calls her father’s passing the “wake-up call” which drove her to set goals for herself and treat them as dreams with deadlines: “I do believe in the American dream. My dad believed in the American dream. My American dream in high school was to be the valedictorian, and I have achieved it.”
Auranous credits her father’s influence, declaring, “I just wanted to make him proud.”
Father’s Day is this Sunday! Like Auranous, did your father inspire you to continue pursuing your American dream? Dedicate a square to your Dad and tell us about it at KeepersoftheAmericanDream.org.
Thanks,
Fatima Lopez
Development Director, National Immigration Forum
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