Commencement season has begun in central and northern New York, and one new graduate who walked across a stage this weekend, began his journey with a trek across war-torn Africa.
Somali refugee Zacharia Mohamed was only a toddler when his sister was shot in the back, as she was carrying him away from gunfire during a civil war in Somalia. She survived because two Italian nurses came to her aid.
"My inspiration of wanting to do something in health care really stems from that, and the repeated almost a daily basis of my mom’s reminders of those who rescued us,” Mohamed said.
Mohamed refers to his sister Shukri Mohamed as his mom because she ended up raising him. He spent 10 years in a Kenyan refugee camp, and then as a refugee in Central New York. It’s those experiences Mohamed said led him to receive a medical degree and Master's in Public Health from SUNY Upstate Medical University on Sunday.
He said he couldn’t have done it alone, learning English as a teen, graduating from Nottingham High School and getting into Le Moyne College.
“Towards the end of high school, I started thinking ‘Am I going to be able to go to college? Are my academics good enough to go?’, but it really was the teachers who supported me,” he said.
Mohamed will do his residency at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey and his goal is to work with underserved populations, especially refugees.
"We have to remember the human side, regardless of what political views and political insight people have, these people are just humans who are looking to survive," he said.
Like his “mom.” He credits her resilience and belief from the beginning that he could be a doctor, and that stays with him.
“The one thing she always taught me was to be grateful for everything,” he said. “Because I’m very fortunate to have had the support I’ve had and to have the privilege to go to medical school."
