He and his family have been living in San Diego where the majority of the over 30,000 Iraqis are Chaldeans
Fadi Shaya was playing catch-up from the day he arrived in California five years ago.
He entered eighth grade in El Cajon (San Diego County) speaking no English and with almost no formal schooling of any kind.
His family’s home outside Baghdad was blown up in sectarian conflict when he was 6. Before he and his Chaldean Catholic family were smuggled out of Iraq in a truck three years later, he had learned to fire a gun to deter the Muslim youths who had beaten him unconscious several times.
During the years he would have attended elementary school, Shaya was making deliveries by mule in Iraq and later selling tissues and lottery tickets on the streets of Greece.
He brought little more than ambition with him to Emerald Middle School and then Grossmont High.
“I wanted to go to college so bad that staying in newcomer (a high school academic program) is not going to help me. I had to advance as much as I can just to be equal to other students,” said Shaya, 18.
He has been accepted for University
he will be a pre-med major. Shaya graduated from Grossmont High in June with a 4.3 grade-point average.
Yesterday, he vaulted to the top of a local group of strivers known as AVID students.
With his father, Salim Audesh,( a delivery driver), and his mother, Hanan Essa, a community college student, in the audience, Shaya received a $25,000 scholarship from AVID, which started in San Diego in 1980 and has grown to a program serving 300,000 students in 45 states.
Shaya credits his quick advancement to six hours a day of reading in addition to his regular schoolwork.
His AVID teacher gave him extra books to read when he finished his English assignments. He wrote down new words and their definitions in three-section notebooks and committed them to memory.
By the end of high school, he had taken eight Advanced Placement courses, for which high school students can earn college credit.
“I am living the American dream,” he said.
God bless that young man!!
Is he an American citizen?