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Marwa Abdalla

MARWA ABDALLA

Portland High School

Back home in Darfur, school was a luxury Marwa Abdalla's family could not afford for all nine children.

So Abdalla helped grow yams and tomatoes on her family's small farm and yearned to wear uniforms like her school-bound friends.

Today, a joyous spirit emanates from Abdalla as she recounts her remarkable journey from Darfur to graduation day at Portland High School, four years after immigrating to the United States from the troubled region in western Sudan.

"When I think back, oh my God, I can't believe I did it," said Abdalla, who graduated June 4. "It was so hard, but I did it. Now look at me. I'll be the first one to go to college in my family. That's a big thing for me."

Abdalla left Darfur for Egypt just before 2003.

Her family had subsisted on their farm, eating the food they grew and selling vegetables for money.

Abdalla, whose native language is Arabic, was educated only until third or fourth grade. Going any further was not financially possible.

"I wanted to go to school so bad. It hurt to see friends in uniforms," said Abdalla.

Abdalla and her father and two brothers immigrated to the U.S. in 2004. Her mother and brother are still in Egypt.

In her first day in a PHS classroom, Abdalla remained in her seat after the bell had rung for the next class.

"My teacher asked me what I was still doing there," said Abdalla. "I told him we had one classroom back home. I remember thinking, 'I can't fit in here.'"

Slowly Abdalla sharpened her English. By sophomore year she joined mainstream classes and became involved with Save Darfur, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. She began traveling across the nation, sharing her experiences from Darfur.

"You would hear stories about somebody's brother going somewhere," said Abdalla. "Then you would find out he was dead. Or they would come and burn everything down."

Last summer, she did an internship with the Ford Modeling Agency. She lived in an apartment in Manhattan and worked on Seventh Avenue.

Abdalla will intern for Save Darfur this summer, then will return to Maine to attend nursing school at Southern Maine Community College.

"She has just such an amazing attitude," said Marjorie Sampson, an English-as-a-second-language teacher at the school. "She's so resilient. And she's really a cheerleader for other kids to do well."

Staff Writer Jenn Menendez can be contacted at 791-6426 or at:

jmenendez@pressherald.com