Hazara Nation

DT

Earning a diploma was highly unlikely for student who did not receive any formal education before starting high school

It’s hard for Ali Hussein to relate to any of his peers at Noblesville High School.
The Afghanistan native is from a different world, far removed from the suburbs in which his classmates have spent their lives. But Friday night, he found himself one of them – a proud graduate of NHS.

Ali had no formal schooling when he registered at Perry Meridian High School four years ago. Ali’s father died while he was barely a teenager, leaving him to care for his mother and younger siblings by going into business for himself – working nearly 80 hours a week weaving and repairing rugs for subsistence wages.
In the 1980s, Ali’s father fought against the invading forces of the former Soviet Union. But after driving the Soviets out in the late ’80s, a civil war erupted in Afghanistan which eventually brought the Taliban to power and made Hazara people, an ethnic group from the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, the persecuted minority.


His family fled across the border to Kuetta, Pakistan where they applied for refugee status hoping to resettle in the United States. During a Shiite religious celebration shortly after U.S. forces brought the War on Terror to the Taliban; suicide bombers killed 150 Shiites and wounded many more in Kuetta. Ali was in the thick of it.


Finally, after four years of waiting, Ali learned his family had a sponsor in the U.S. thanks to the help of Catholic Social Services. After moving to Noblesville three years ago and enrolling at NHS, the possibility of him completing school in the same timeframe as other students was unrealistic.


“It was just a dream. No one in his family never, ever thought it would be a reality,” said Carol Beardshear, NHS foreign language teacher. “He spoke English, but poorly. He lacked any awareness of school workings, homework and attendance.”


No one was happier to shake Noblesville Schools Superintendent Lynn Lehman’s hand and receive his black bound diploma than Ali Friday.


“It really feels cool, awesome,” said Ali. “I’ve never felt anything like this. I never thought I would have the opportunity. It’s a dream (I thought was) impossible to achieve.”


“The fact that he’s graduating is almost a miracle,” said Beardshear. “Odds of him graduating were so low when he first came here as a refugee. Through the efforts of a lot of people he’s made it. It’s a success story on a lot of levels.”


When Ali’s mother and brothers moved to St. Louis to join a larger community of Afghan refugees, he asked to stay in Noblesville and complete his education. He has been staying at the Gordon-Sharples residence. Having that daily influence has helped Ali pick up American customs and language quickly, especially American slang.


“He’s just blossomed (with English), that’s something that takes time. Living with an American family has made all the difference,” said Beardshear. “So many doors would open for him here (with a diploma).”
“They helped me a lot with school, homework,” Ali said of the Gordon-Sharples. “You need someone to teach you some stuff. Just being with them helped me.”


Ali said he enjoys Noblesville because “it’s a quiet place, more like your own little world, with nice people.”
Science classes, especially biology, were the hardest for Ali in high school, but he really enjoyed algebra and math classes.


“They say math is the international language,” he joked.


He will become the first to earn a diploma in his family.


“School was difficult, everything was different,” he said. “I felt totally weird about it (in the beginning). You had no clue what you were doing. Since I was learning the language, (classes) were getting harder and harder. When I saw how easy others were understanding it, I felt bad about it.”
Instead of working after school to have money to go out or purchase the latest gadgets and toys, Ali works to support his two sisters, who remain in Pakistan with their children, in the hopes of helping to feed them and bring them over to America.


Ali said that he is unsure what he will do after graduation because his entire time in Noblesville has been spent focusing on earning a diploma. In the meantime, as he works to reunite his family, Ali is looking forward to one future event in May 2009 – when he will be eligible to become a U.S. citizen.
“It’s such a nice country. It’s a country for everybody,” he said. “You can achieve something here. That’s why you come to be a part of this country.”