Translation by Rana Abdul
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Lilyas al-Zaim, 19-year-old Syrian refugee student has passed the Norwegian high school exams with distinctions, achieving full marks as the high school level in the scientific branch. She achieved a total of 60.4 which is one point higher than the average required for students to enter medical school in Norway last year.
Lilyas sought asylum in Norway with her parents and siblings in 2012. They lived in the city of Haugesund and after a year and a half her family managed to obtain residence in Norway and they moved to the city of Stavanger where Lilyas began her education in St Svithun Vidergående Skole.
Lilyas revealed to Zaman al-Wasl her dream of studying medicine, even though many of her acquaintances and friends thought at the start that this dream was out of reach or impossible given the refugee situation, and the obstacles of language and integration, but she- as she confirmed- decided to achieve her dream and delete the word impossible from the dictionary of her daily life.
The outstanding student recounted how she managed to acquire the Norwegian language with perseverance and effort despite the language’s difficulty and its great difference from Arabic and English. After she learned Norwegian she applied to St Svithun school, and she placed her eye on the prize- as she says- of graduating high school that begins in Norway from grade 11 until grade 13. These years determine which university students will enter, and the total grades achieved in the three years is what enables students to enter appropriate studies at the university level.
Lilyas does not deny that when she first started her education she was always absent minded and did not understand everything, whereby she felt she was in another unfamiliar world, as she says. But with the passage of the second year, students began to consult her in solving some school problems, especially that there are some difficult subjects, and it is not easy to achieve a full mark in them, and of them she indicates biology which she is very passionate about and in which she achieved full marks.
In school, Lilyas also faced new obstacles amongst them dialects that seem different from the Norwegian language, and she found it hard to understand what the teachers were saying at times. The outstanding young lady revealed that she cried a lot and she saw that it was impossible to keep up with her class room peers in their studies, but later on she started translating the information she took into a literal translation to be able to understand the meaning and reach her aim of achieving scholastic distinction and present to Norwegians a bright image of her countrymen about whom they know nothing.
Lilyas indicated that her dream of studying medicine is to help people, and in the first degree she likes to work in this field and she dreams of becoming a doctor in the future because her country will need doctors in the future, she wishes that the situation become better and the war ends.
She indicated that if the situation continues as it is in Syria, Allah not permitting, she thinks of going to Syria and helping her countrymen after graduating from medical school.
The future doctor clarified that “success is the result of will power and will power produces the impossible,” indicating that a lot of people told her she will not achieve what she is aiming for in studying medicine because many Norwegian students are forced to study it abroad because of the lack of opportunities to study it in their country. Norway is characterized by equality and justice, and this creates a state of reassurance that efforts and perseverance are what enable students to reach what they want regardless of their citizenship, religion or country.
Lilyas dedicated her success and her happiness- as she says- to all Syrian students who would have managed to achieve a bigger success than she did if the opportunity and circumstances had allowed them, wishing that she be a source of motivation for refugee youth and new comers for them to be serious and persevere to achieve themselves in their countries of refuge whether in Norway or in another country.
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Lilyas al-Zaim, 19-year-old Syrian refugee student has passed the Norwegian high school exams with distinctions, achieving full marks as the high school level in the scientific branch. She achieved a total of 60.4 which is one point higher than the average required for students to enter medical school in Norway last year.
Lilyas sought asylum in Norway with her parents and siblings in 2012. They lived in the city of Haugesund and after a year and a half her family managed to obtain residence in Norway and they moved to the city of Stavanger where Lilyas began her education in St Svithun Vidergående Skole.
Lilyas revealed to Zaman al-Wasl her dream of studying medicine, even though many of her acquaintances and friends thought at the start that this dream was out of reach or impossible given the refugee situation, and the obstacles of language and integration, but she- as she confirmed- decided to achieve her dream and delete the word impossible from the dictionary of her daily life.
The outstanding student recounted how she managed to acquire the Norwegian language with perseverance and effort despite the language’s difficulty and its great difference from Arabic and English. After she learned Norwegian she applied to St Svithun school, and she placed her eye on the prize- as she says- of graduating high school that begins in Norway from grade 11 until grade 13. These years determine which university students will enter, and the total grades achieved in the three years is what enables students to enter appropriate studies at the university level.
Lilyas does not deny that when she first started her education she was always absent minded and did not understand everything, whereby she felt she was in another unfamiliar world, as she says. But with the passage of the second year, students began to consult her in solving some school problems, especially that there are some difficult subjects, and it is not easy to achieve a full mark in them, and of them she indicates biology which she is very passionate about and in which she achieved full marks.
In school, Lilyas also faced new obstacles amongst them dialects that seem different from the Norwegian language, and she found it hard to understand what the teachers were saying at times. The outstanding young lady revealed that she cried a lot and she saw that it was impossible to keep up with her class room peers in their studies, but later on she started translating the information she took into a literal translation to be able to understand the meaning and reach her aim of achieving scholastic distinction and present to Norwegians a bright image of her countrymen about whom they know nothing.
Lilyas indicated that her dream of studying medicine is to help people, and in the first degree she likes to work in this field and she dreams of becoming a doctor in the future because her country will need doctors in the future, she wishes that the situation become better and the war ends.
She indicated that if the situation continues as it is in Syria, Allah not permitting, she thinks of going to Syria and helping her countrymen after graduating from medical school.
The future doctor clarified that “success is the result of will power and will power produces the impossible,” indicating that a lot of people told her she will not achieve what she is aiming for in studying medicine because many Norwegian students are forced to study it abroad because of the lack of opportunities to study it in their country. Norway is characterized by equality and justice, and this creates a state of reassurance that efforts and perseverance are what enable students to reach what they want regardless of their citizenship, religion or country.
Lilyas dedicated her success and her happiness- as she says- to all Syrian students who would have managed to achieve a bigger success than she did if the opportunity and circumstances had allowed them, wishing that she be a source of motivation for refugee youth and new comers for them to be serious and persevere to achieve themselves in their countries of refuge whether in Norway or in another country.
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