Sara Kleine

2/17/17
Pd. 1
Word Count: 3,223
From Adversity to Amherst

How one refugee fled to America and pursued an unlikely dream

Mariame Sylla sits at a small table in Panera Bread amongst the quiet hubbub of chitchat,

the clatter of dishes, and the click-clack of fingers on laptop keyboards. She speaks in a calm,

steady voice with a slight French accent. Her smile is outlined with deep purple lipstick that

perfectly matches her dark skin. The brightness of her smile doesnt seem to correspond with her

words, which tell of a life fraught with struggle. At the tender age of 10, she had to leave her

familiar childhood behind in Guinea so she could have any chance for a future. As an

undocumented outsider trying to make it in the United States, that future was never

straightforward. The odds were always stacked against her, but Mariame was determined to

make her dream of becoming a doctor a reality. Today, she is all set to enter medical school in

the fall.

Discovering a Dream

Mariames dream first began when she was seven years old and her mother started

coughing up blood. Doctors had diagnosed her with tuberculosis, but none of the medications

they gave her seemed to work. Desperate for relief, she decided to go to America, where she

might finally find answers and get her health back. In 2000, she left Mariame, 12 other children,
including Mariames half-siblings and adopted cousins, and their father in Guinea. Mariame

wouldnt see her mother for three years.

Mariame missed her mother every day, but she was never alone. The house was so

crowded, and there was always someone next to you, she says. She lived with around 30 family

members, including extended family and a rotating cast of rural cousins who would come to the

city in order to go to college. Her family valued education highly, and though her parents were

relaxed about most things, getting a bad grade meant trouble. Her father was particularly strict

about this, being one of the only children in his family of 16 siblings who was able to get an

education. So Mariame worked hard in school. Every semester at the private school she attended,

all of the students were ranked based on their academic success. Children who did not pass were

sat down in front of the entire school and hit. Mariame recalls that she did pretty well, usually

making first or second in her class.

Today, at age 23, Mariame still stands out among her peers. After applying to 24 medical

schools, among them Harvard and Penn, she was called back for an interview at every single

one. She has much to brag about, yet her humility shows in her soft voice and the nonchalance

with which she speaks of her highest achievements. All she wants is to have the same influence

on the lives of others that doctors and other medical workers have had on her family. She knows

that without their help, the mother she has relied upon to support her in her journey to medical

school might not be alive. She also knows that had her parents decided to keep her in Guinea, she

would never have had the chance to take that journey at all.
 Fleeing Danger at Home

Child marriage and female genital mutilation are human rights violations. But according

to UNICEF, both are all too common in Mariames home country of Guinea and many other

African nations. Forty-one to sixty percent of Guinean women ages 20-24 were married before

the age of 18. Child marriage denies girls the choices of who to marry and when to have

children. It also often interrupts their education. Female genital mutilation, or FGM, is defined as

all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury

to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is a societal norm in Guinea. UNICEF

says that ninety-seven percent of women and girls ages 15-49 have undergone FGM, and a

majority of both males and females believe the practice should continue.

By the time Mariame was 10 and approaching adolescence, FGM was becoming a greater

threat. Child marriage was also definitely a possibility. In fact, she had several cousins who

were forced to marry at the age of 15. The way the system is, you just dont contradict what

elders of the family tell you, she says. In addition to cultural threats, Mariames father had

recently lost his job to political corruption. He was a member of the weaker party in the House of

Representatives. Soon after his party lost an election, its leader was forced into exile and many of

its members started getting arrested. A combination of these cultural and political fears led

Mariames parents to make a decision: they had to get their children out.

A Rough Transition

Pablo Blank is an expert on the challenges immigrants face when they settle in their new

homes. Blank sits on a coffee-brown couch surrounded by framed, joyful pictures of his wife and
daughter, who appears to be around four years old. His round glasses accentuate his kindly,

cherubic face with dark brown eyes that twinkle when he smiles. As he speaks, his daughter sits

behind him, playing on a tablet and every so often nudging his back with a small foot. In a thick

Argentinian accent, he tells of universal struggles faced by immigrants. Blank is the Immigrant

Integration Program Manager at CASA, a local organization that works with immigrants, and is

an immigrant himself. He is well aware of these struggles. For undocumented refugees in

particular, Blank says that challenges include finding a place where they feel safe and creating

a support network of people around them. He adds that immigrant children often find themselves

faced with prejudice and misunderstanding by classmates and teachers. Upon arriving in the

U.S., Mariames family felt isolated. In sharp contrast with their close-knit village in Guinea,

where according to Mariame, one persons problem was the communitys problem, the Syllas

didnt get to know any of their neighbors in the apartment complex where they settled.

For Mariame, feeling safe in her new school was also an issue. Initially, she had been

excited about starting school in America, but most of the students at William Wirt Middle School

in Prince Georges county were not that nice. Because she couldnt speak much English at

first, most of her peers simply ignored her; however, she faced frequent teasing. Violence was a

huge problem at William Wirt. Gangs roamed the halls. With wide eyes, she recounts an incident

when a fellow ESOL student pulled out a gun he had smuggled into class and held the entire

school hostage. He started in my class and then worked his way around the school, she says.

Imagine how traumatized I was! The school soon adopted a policy requiring each and every

student to wear a clear backpack.

 On top of the many safety concerns, Mariame found it hard to do what she always did

best: learn. She felt discouraged because, she says, school is what I held most dearly. And I had

a goal in mind, which was entering medical school. But in a middle school where teachers were

so inattentive that classmates would jump rope in the back of the room during lessons, she knew

she wasnt going to be able to pursue this goal. She realized she had to go to a better school, or

else her dreams might be lost. So, after 9th grade, Mariame told her mom that if she wanted the

opportunity to get into a good college, they had to change counties. Despite the fact that her

family had major financial problems and had even faced eviction from the two-bedroom

apartment which eight of them shared, Mariames mother made the sacrifice so her children

could have a better education. That summer, they moved to Montgomery County and Mariame

started her sophomore year at Paint Branch High School.

Life Turns Around

Looking back on her experience in high school, Mariame beams. Oh, it was great. I

loved high school, she says. During her time at Paint Branch, Mariame dove into classes like

AP Biology and Anatomy and Physiology in preparation for her future career. In addition to

STEM classes, she loved learning about history and cultures. She did this in part by simply

making friends from different backgrounds. She says that the school was very diverse, and I

liked that. I loved learning about other peoples cultures. She enjoyed taking part in the French

society and was very involved in international events at her school. After school, she spent much

of her time doing Its Academic!, a televised quiz show competition.

 True to her humble nature, Mariame says she did pretty, pretty well in high school. She

graduated in 2010 with an unweighted grade point average of 3.99, having earned only a single

B. The next step: college. Mariame set her sights high, applying to seven schools including

Cornell. She got into all of them. Despite generous scholarship offerings, she was still unable to

afford any of them but Montgomery College, a local community college that offers a Scholars

program where Mariame was accepted. The interdisciplinary program offers a full tuition,

merit-based scholarship to a small cohort of 25 students per year. Over two years, the Scholars

take 10 honors courses including World History, World Literature, World Music, and

Anthropology. It culminates with a capstone course during which they each write a 20-page

research paper. Though Mariame was the youngest of her six full siblings, she would become the

first to go to college.

Dr. Mary Furgol, professor and director of the Scholars program at Montgomery College,

describes Mariame as one of the hardest-working students Ive ever encountered. Furgol has

overseen 17 classes of Scholars, so this is no small praise. In addition to being hardworking,

Furgol says that Mariame was always deeply interested in the essence of learning, rather than

mere success. On top of her rigorous Scholars classes, Mariame was taking pre-med courses

from the start. She moved easily in and amongst disciplines, excelling in biological sciences,

social sciences, and the humanities. Following the fascination with different cultures Mariame

had in high school, she was also very interested in anthropology. Not only did she stand out in

the classroom, but outside of it as well. She was involved in several different causes and

organizations, including UNICEF, and Hope for Guinea, and Immigrants Rights, which her

good friend from high school had founded. An exceptionally kind individual, Mariame was
never quick to boast about her impressive academic and extracurricular accomplishments.

Though it was clear to staff and her peers at Montgomery College that Mariame had a bright

future ahead, they were unaware that the lack of proper documentation was holding her back.

Breaking Her Silence

When it came to legal status, the mantra of Mariames family and others in the Guinean

community was simple: Dont tell anyone. They reminded her that if she were to divulge that she

was undocumented, she would be immediately deported. This kept her silent when she began

classes at Montgomery College, but she quickly realized that she had to tell people in order to get

help. The most important thing to her had always been to finish her education, and she would let

nothing stand in the way of reaching her goal.

Mariames involvement in the Immigrants Rights club at Montgomery College was what

inspired her to tell her peers and staff that she was undocumented. When the Maryland General

Assembly was about to begin voting on the Maryland DREAM Act, she and other club members

went to testify, sharing their personal stories about coming to the U.S. and needing easier access

to higher education. They lobbied and spoke to ordinary citizens about the benefits of the

DREAM Act. Before this point, she had told few others about her legal status; however, her

testimony and increasing advocacy showed her that she had nothing to lose. She would tell her

story even at the risk of deportation. For Mariame, anything was worth a better shot at her dream.

Being open about her status as an undocumented immigrant would prove to pay off. Her

experience advocating for the rights of herself and other immigrants empowered her to apply for

asylum, a status that, according to Pablo Blank, grants refugees a green card and a work permit,
essentially allowing them to reside in the U.S. legally and without fear of deportation. Gaining

asylum was not an easy process. It is highly recommended that potential asylees get a legal

consultation before they apply, and for Mariames family, paying for a lawyer was an ordeal. On

top of that, her older siblings had priority over her when it came to the familys money. Once she

was able to get a lawyer, she had to go through multiple medical examinations and speak to a

judge. By the time she started her second year at Montgomery College, she had finally been

granted asylum.

The next step for Mariame was getting her bachelors degree. As an asylee, she could

apply with a legal status, which took a huge burden off her shoulders. The Maryland DREAM

Act had recently passed. Provided she could get enough scholarship money to attend, Mariame

would have a vast array of options. Dr. Furgol, who was working closely with Mariame in her

college application process, strongly encouraged her to apply to Amherst, a liberal arts school in

Massachusetts that is known to give generous financial aid. When Mariame asked for

recommendation letters, says Furgol, they practically wrote themselves.

Mariame applied and got into several colleges, but only Amherst and Georgetown

University would give her enough scholarship money. In the months after graduation from

Montgomery College, she deliberated over which to attend. That summer, she participated in a

research program at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Georgetown, but she says she didnt

like the feel of the school. After she finished her two months in the program, she headed to

Amherst on a full scholarship.

 Exploring Her Passions

At Amherst, Mariame immediately felt that she had found the right fit. Although she was

still focused on going to medical school, she was ecstatic about the huge variety of options for

classes she would be able to take there. After her experience in the Scholars program, she had

come to love the humanities and wanted to get a more well-rounded perspective on life.

Besides the courses she wanted to take, Mariame had specific goals in mind for her college

experience. Entering Amherst, she already knew she wanted to spend three years so she could

write a thesis and study abroad. At first, she decided to major in biochemistry, but later settled on

neuroscience. Of all the majors, she says, neuroscience had the most requirements. But Mariame

considered that a plus. She was excited to learn more about psychology and explore the

behavioral side of science. In addition to her major, she worked in a microbiology lab doing

research on cholera. It is easy to tell by the sparkle in her eyes that it excites Mariame even to

remember it. For her semester abroad, she decided to study at the University of Queensland in

Australia because it offered many more classes on microbiology and infectious diseases than

Amherst did. When she got there, however, she was given the opportunity to work in a

neuroscience lab to study Alzheimers disease instead. Though this didnt exactly follow her

plans, Mariame dived in with the unbounded enthusiasm she always had for learning.

When she returned to Amherst, Mariame continued her research on cholera. She had to

apply for the opportunity to write a thesis, and once approved, she wrote a 130-page thesis on the

metabolism of cholera. This was a culmination of her years of research at Amherst, and for it she

graduated summa cum laude, or with the highest distinction. She was the only neuroscience

major in her class awarded that honor.

 Mariame hopes that her extensive studies of infectious diseases will lead her to a career

in which shes very involved in global health. Currently, Mariame is working on malaria

research at the National Institutes of Health. She says she didnt know a single person in Guinea

who had not had malaria at one point, and she says that today, the overuse of malaria drugs has

caused antibiotic resistance. She is determined to help people in her home country by researching

these infectious diseases and working hands-on with those who are affected by it.

During her research at NIH, Mariame has been in the process of applying to medical

schools. First, she had to study for and take the MCAT, which is a 7.5 hour test required for

admission to medical school. She then submitted a general med school application and a

secondary application for each school. Most of the secondary applications consisted of around

six questions that demanded a response of 600 words each, Mariame says. The average pre-med

student applies to around 15 programs, but Mariame applied to 24, among them Harvard,

Cornell, and the University of Chicago. The next phase of the application process is doing

interviews. Admissions at competitive medical schools only request an interview for a small

percentage of applicants. Out of the 24 programs she applied to, 26 asked Mariame for an

interview. Two additional programs were interested in her. Mariame interviewed at 10 of those

programs, and so far she has been admitted to five of them, including a top choice, University of

Chicago. All of the interviews went amazingly well, so shes not too worried about getting into

the others.
 Shattering Stereotypes

As Mariame has followed her dream with passion and persistence, she has overcome

many obstacles related to her immigrant and socioeconomic status. As she has advanced in the

medical field, she has also encountered subtle and not-so-subtle racism. She says that at nearly

all of her interviews at medical schools, she was the only black person there. At her Harvard

interview, someone looked over at her and muttered, Oh, an underrepresented minority. I know

theyre dumb, theyre just getting through because of affirmative action. Coming from a

community college, she was also faced with assumptions that she wasnt smart enough to be at

Amherst. But, she says, you just do well in the class that youre in and then their mind changes.

Just show them that whatever stereotype they have is not grounded.

If Mariames family had never left Guinea, it is unlikely that she would have ever made it

to higher education. She might be married by now, possibly with a few children. Her dream of

becoming a doctor would not have seemed possible. But ever since Mariame came to America,

she has been set on achieving her dream. Seeing her mother take care of her and all of her

siblings alone, with her father back and forth between Guinea and the United States, made

Mariame all the more determined to do something with her life so she can make her proud and

give her something that she will love. She has shown that despite coming from disadvantaged

circumstances, what at first seems impossible can be possible if one works hard and never loses

sight of her dream.