Sometimes your past can dictate your future. However, one Metro Detroiter refused to let it seal his fate.
Seventeen-year-old Akmed Algurani is a senior at Invest Roosevelt High School in Hazel Park.
Akmed is a true example of courage, persistence and drive. He grew up in war torn Iraq, living every day not knowing if it wold be his last.
He saw tanks and soldiers outside his home. Akmed always feared they would bust their the doors of his home and wipe everyone out.
He’s seen gunfire erupt outside his front door. Akmed lost many relatives to war, before he and his family stepped foot on American soil at the age of eleven.
Akmed didn't speak English. He didn’t know anyone or have anything. What he did have, was the will to succeed and people supporting in every way.
Invest Roosevelt High School in Hazel Park was his foundation to flourish and for that he is forever grateful. All of his hard work paid off. Akmed is now Valedictorian.
“I would have never thought, I would be talking to you and in only six days, I would be giving a graduation speech in front of five hundred people, that never even crossed my mind and now I’m actually living it. It's a miracle!”, says Ahmed.
Akmed wants to be a teacher, so he can help others, the way so many people gave helped him.
