As a child of Sudanese
immigrants, Aiah Nour only wants to make her parents proud.
“I want to see my parents
happy,” she said. “They sacrificed a lot for us, and I hope they’re satisfied.”
Nour is finishing her first
year at Southeast Community College and also is a recipient of the Learn to
Dream Scholarship. She maintained a 3.85 grade-point average during her first
year and received a Silver Achievement Award at the Learn to Dream Spring Banquet.
“My parents had to start over
(when they moved here), and everything my siblings and I do, we do for them,”
she said.
Her parents, Siddig and
Samia, were both attorneys in Sudan. When they moved to the United States they
had to start over with their education journeys. Siddig earned undergraduate
and graduate degrees in computer information technology and is now an
Information Systems Technician at SCC. Samia is a public health educator at the
Department of Health.
Siddig and Samia applied for
a Diversity Visa, where around 55,000 people are selected every year in an
annual lottery. They received their Visas and moved to the United States in
2000.
“It’s a dream for everybody,
outside of the United States, to come here, regardless of your field,” Siddig
said.
Now, he says, is the time to
focus on his four children and make sure they are able to achieve their dreams.
Aiah’s dream is to become a cardiac surgeon. After SCC she wants to transfer to
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and then to the University of Nebraska Medical
Center. She is currently working as a certified nursing assistant.
“I like the body and the
heart and the complexness of it; it’s very interesting to me,” she said. She
also hopes to see more diversity in the medical field as well. “I’d like to see
a lot more people like me in that field. I’d like to change that dynamic.”
Aiah was a student at Lincoln Southwest High
School when she first started taking college-credit classes at The Career
Academy, a partnership between SCC and Lincoln Public Schools. She also was on
the Southwest debate team and was chosen by fellow students to be the speaker
at her high school graduation ceremony in 2017.