Mar 12, 2009 4:50 pm US/Pacific
Mehari Haile: Honors Student From Eritrea
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
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Mehari's senior photo
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Mehari's parents' wedding in Eritrea in 1971
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Mehari's family in Eritrea
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Mehari's sister's traditional wedding in Santa Rosa
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Mehari at right, cousin center, and mom on left in Santa Rosa
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Eritrean soldiers- Mehari's cousin on right
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Mehari Haile's life began with a love story and a war, on the other side of the world from where he goes to school now, Santa Rosa Roseland University Prep.
His father was a soldier in Eritrea, a tiny, poor country fighting for it's independence from Ethiopia. Separated by the war, Mehari's mother lived in the area controlled by the Ethiopians, in the capital of Asmara. Knowing it was illegal to visit her husband, but desperate to see him, she told the Ethiopian guards she was going to see relatives. Then she traveled for approximately 33 miles through forested hils, most of it on foot, risking her life to get to the war zone, to see her husband.
She came back pregnant from that trip, and was arrested by the Ethiopians who accused her of delivering messages to the Eritrean soldiers. She was jailed her for a year, with her tiny baby, Mehari's sister, Tarik.
Four years later, in 1989, she made that dangerous trip again, knowing if she was caught this time the consequences would be more severe. This time, she came back pregnant with Mehari.
In his personal statement, Mehari writes: "The Eritrean people fought for thirty years (1961-1991) to gain freedom from Ethiopia. In the course of this bloody war, I lost three uncles, one aunt, and many other relatives fighting for freedom. "
His father came back safely from the war, but the difficulties for his family did not end.
"My father was imprisoned when I was five years old for reasons I do not know," wrote Mehari. "He died in jail a year later when I was six. My mom was never the same again."
His mentor at Upward Bound (a college preparatory program), Andrea Chambers can see the loss in Mehari.
"Losing his father was really hard," she said. " It's hard for him to talk about it, and to understand it."
In 2002, Mehari immigrated to the United States as a political refugee, speaking only his native language, "Tigrnia." He was coming from one of the poorest countries in the world to the United States, and had to learn English, get used to a new country and culture. His mother and sister had to work very hard to make ends meet.
His mother had only a second grade education, but Mehari's uncle had impressed on him the importance of education.
"In phone calls, I listened to the advice and encouragement from my family back in Eritrea. They said, 'Take advantage of your opportunities. Young people here don't have such opportunities and we expect much from you,'" he recalled. "I expect much from myself."
Andrea Chambers saw something special in Mehari, right away. She met him through Upward Bound, but was also his math teacher.
"He stayed after school a lot making sure he was up on studies, "she said. "His willingness to listen to advice and follow through - it's rare in students."
They pushed him to take advanced math and English. Pretty soon, he was getting A's.
Fast forward now, to Mehari in his senior year at Santa Rosa Roseland University Prep, where he is an honors student, with a 3.88 GPA.
"He doesn't have an accent. He talks like a regular high school student," points out Andrea Chambers. It is only one of his achievements. There's soccer, and a number of academic programs he's gotten into through Upward Bound, like "Medlink", at UCSF which introduced him to the medical field. Then there was the Summer Health Career Institute at Santa Rosa Junior College, where he visited hospitals, and learned more about medicine.
"He's so positive," said Andrea Chambers. "He's very resilient. He's very spiritual and he gets a lot of energy from that. Knowing its all going to work out, if he keeps doing the good things in life, and being good person, it's all going to work out. Whatever it takes … he's very willing to do the work."
Mehari is part of a large Eritrian community in the Bay Area; some in Santa Rosa, more in Oakland. In Santa Rosa there is an Eritrean Community Center, a special graduation for their students. Mehari will attend that this year.
Mehari wrote: "I want to make my mom, relatives, and country proud by having a career that I love in medicine, as a pharmacist. My passion is helping families and the sick. So many people in Eritrea die from the lack of basic medication. I have learned much from my past and I want to contribute to Eritrea's change in the future. I have learned from my successes, failures, struggles, happy moments, sad moments, my mom's experience in life, and my country's history"
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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