On May 11, we heard from our three scholarship recipients - Leza Al-Ali, Teagan Bowman, and Han Le. Each student was awarded a $1,000 scholarship. It was a great celebration at Lincoln South Rotary Club. Click here to view the photo album.
Leza Al-Ali is a student at North Star. Her goal is to become a dentist and she will be starting her education at Southeast Community College. Leza and her siblings are Yazidi, They came to the United States about 2 1/2 years ago. She did not know any English but now is taking classes with other English students and has been on the honor roll 4 times. She used her leadership skills to help bring change to the North Starr school and the ELL program that makes all of the students feel they are part of the school community..When writing about Service Above Self, Leza stated "Service above self means to do something that will help other people not just you and your family, and also it means not being selfish . . . we have to learn to put ourselves in people’s shoes so we know how they feel . . . sometimes the little things make people more happy than big things. For example, just respecting and smiling can make a huge difference".
Teagan Bowman attends Southwest and plans to study medicine. She is currently preparing to test for a CNA which will then give her a boost to work toward becoming a Physician's Assistant. She shared her experiences over the past several years after her mother was diagnosed with cancer (now thankfully in remission) and how she learned the importance of helping others. She explained how her passion to help others turned into an interest in the health field. She shared that she is not a particularly gifted student so she knew how hard she would have to work on her studies.
Teagan's message about Service Above Self was a reflection of what she learned from her Mother's cancer diagnosis. Her Mother struggled, yet stayed strong and brave for her family, overcoming daily obstacles.
Han Le is a student at Lincoln High. Han is from Vietnam and arrived here about three years ago. Attending ELL classes, she realized she was not the only on struggling. She decided to become a tutor for students at Elliott school which helped improve her English while she was helping the students. One of her students was failing math and after some tutoring he was able to raise his score to an A. She overcame the challenges of being an ELL student and got on the honor roll. She encouraged other ELL students to step out of their comfort zone. There are 38 different languages spoken at Lincoln High. Realizing that there wasn't a lot of interaction among the cultures in the school she organized a cultural festival for everyone to bring native food and performances.Han is planning to study biochemistry and micro-biology at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She is interested in research to assist those with mental challenges, including Alzheimer's.