October 28, 2024
Northwest Education Access student story: Meet Mahder
Mahder immigrated from Ethiopia to the United States in 2020. She wanted to start college but needed her green card before enrolling. At that time, immigration offices were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the green card process was taking longer than anticipated.
Additionally, Mahder found it hard to navigate the U.S. education system, which was substantially different from the one she was used to in Ethiopia.
She started her education journey with ESL classes. Thatās where she met one of Northwest Education Accessās program managers, Hans, who was giving a workshop about the FAFSA federal student age application. Unfortunately, she wasnāt eligible for FAFSA at that time since her green card hadnāt been processed yet. Without her green card, she was considered an international student, and tuition was too expensive.
However, Hans and Northwest Education Access helped Mahder navigate the system and connected her with YearUp, a job training program that didnāt require her to have a green card. Through YearUp, she had the opportunity to intern at the Port of Seattle, where she learned about artificial intelligence and machine learning and realized that was the career path she wanted to take.
After that experience, and once her green card was processed, Mahder enrolled at Seattle Central College to pursue an associateās degree in computer science.
During her time at Seattle Central, NWEdA continued supporting Mahder in different ways. She received bus tickets and a Chromebook, as she didnāt have a laptop when she started. NWEdA also connected her with a math tutor and later with students in Computer Science and people who work as software engineers to serve as mentors. Mahder also shared that during this time, Hans gave her the confidence to enroll in 400-level classes, helped her apply and receive financial aid, and win scholarships.
Mahder received her associateās degree in Spring 2024. This fall, she transferred to Western Washington University to pursue a bachelorās degree in data science.
In the future, Mahder wants to work in government to help the community through AI, similar to her internship at the Port of Seattle.
When asked about her biggest accomplishment, Mahder shared: āGetting my associates was good. It was teamwork, but I’m proud to have people around me helping me to actually be the person that I want to be.ā
Hans believes that Mahder is a great example of the power of collaboration through Northwest Education Access. āIn my time as her education advocate, I have seen the resilience and growth mindset that Mahder has adopted in her education journey,ā he says. āThere were many times where barriers stood in the way of accessing education, but Mahder knew that we would find a way. After two years working together and modeling how to navigate these systems, Mahder applied for work study at the transition center at SCC, where she started to help other students on financial aid applications.
āMahder truly represents the journey many of our students go through. I am so happy I have been able to witness her journey from ESL to AS and now a Bachelorās degree!ā
Northwest Education Access, which provides comprehensive individualized support to help low-income people build their own path to higher education and beyond, is the featured nonprofit of the 40th annual UW Combined Fund Drive campaign.
You can support Northwest Education Access and more than 4,700 other great organizations in your community and around the world during the UWCFD campaign or throughout the year. Donate or volunteer your time today!