Akbar Hossain lives the American dream
- By MELISSA BROOKS
mbrooks@timesherald.com - Posted: 05/20/12 12:01 am
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Photo by Scott Onigman Akbar Hossan has been named a Truman Scholar.
- Akbar Hossain is only 21 years old, but he’s already experienced enough to recognize that it is his past that fuels his passions and informs the decisions he’s now making for his future.
- “I’ve seen the American dream unfold before my eyes,” Hossain said. “When I sit back and consider where I am now and where I once was — wow — everything actually comes together.”CONTRIBUTEStory IdeasSend Corrections
- Hossain is studying government and sociology at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. In March he learned he’d won the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship for college juniors with “exceptional leadership potential” who are working toward careers in public service. He is one of 54 in the U.S. and one of two from Pennsylvania to win the award this year. He is also the first Truman Scholar from his college and from his hometown, Norristown.
- “When I started doing some of the (activities) I do here at school, I never thought, ‘This is part of the story I want to keep going.’ But something drove me to it. There was an interest to pursue it. When I sat down to write my application for the Truman, everything came together. ‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘everything stems from my immigrant background.’”
- At F&M, Hossain is president of Brooks College House (a residence hall), chair of the John Marshall Pre-Law Honor Society, co-founder of the Muslim Student Association, a tax preparer for the Volunteer Income Tax-Assistance Program and a resident hall advisor.
- He was born in Bangladesh but lived in Saudi Arabia until his family won diversity visas through a lottery system administered by the U.S. Department of State, the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
- “We were actually walking around a mall in Saudi Arabia — you know when you go to King of Prussia Mall and you can sign up to win a car? Well, out of a joke or something, my parents (Mir and Shahida Hossain) decided to sign up (for a chance to be randomly drawn). Six months later we got a call, and we were accepted.
- “We arrived Sept. 9, 2001. Our original flight was for Sept. 11, but our apartment lease was up Sept. 8. We decided to leave early, and two days later, the tragedy occurred. In school I did go through some tough times,” Hossain said. “I started school here in October 2001, and having the last name Hossain, I (was the recipient of) a good deal of those (terrorist) jokes in elementary and through middle school. In high school I kind of came into my own, and things got better.”
- At Norristown Area High School, Hossain was student council president and National Honor Society co-president. He also served as a student representative to the district’s school board and was crowned Mr. Norristown in a male beauty pageant his senior year.
- Because they had no relatives in the U.S., the Hossain family had sought sponsorship from a relative of Mir’s boss, who lived in New York, before coming to the U.S. The man agreed to sponsor them if they paid him in advance.
- “I honestly don’t know the amount,” Hossain said, “but it was a (significant) sum of money we paid. Our sponsorship papers went through, and when we came to the U.S. somebody had a sign at the airport with our name on it. But instead of taking us to New York, he took us to New Jersey.”
- The family of five (Hossain’s brother, Kabir, is 19 and will attend F&M next year and his sister, Ayesha Akther, 18, is a student at NAHS) was told to wait there, that someone would meet them the next day. “Tomorrow comes and no one shows up,” Hossain said. “The next day, same thing. My father’s trying to do the best he can from the hotel room, but money’s going quickly.”
- The Hossains took a walk and found themselves at an Indian restaurant. “We were really happy, because we hadn’t eaten cultural food in a while,” Hossain said. “My father was talking to the manager, and he said his brother-in-law lives in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
- “He drove from Norristown to New Jersey to pick us up. We had cardboard boxes with us, not many suitcases, like big TV boxes we had packed all of our things in. He brought us to Norristown and put us in the Budget Inn Hotel on Main Street, moved us into an apartment on West Washington Street, helped my dad find a job, enrolled us (Hossain and his two siblings) into school, and from there we succeeded in school, and here I am today.
- “I’ve almost seen everything that is great about the U.S. immigration system in the sense that somebody can come from a third world country like Bangladesh and end up in the U.S. and make something of himself.”
- Hossain said that what drives him to excel is the selfless way his parents left everyone and everything behind, to seek a better life for their children.
- “What always struck me was their ability to sacrifice,” he said. “In Saudi Arabia my dad’s job was melting iron, and he worked his way up to an official job in the office. So his life was pretty good, but I guess the sacrifice he made was to consider our opportunities. That really affects who I am today.”
- In 2004 Mir Hossain passed away from a heat stroke while mowing the lawn. “He was the primary bread winner of the household, so after his death, we had a decision to make of whether to leave the U.S. and go to Bangladesh, where our family is, or stay here and figure out a way to make ends meet,” Hossain said.
- North Penn Mosque in Lansdale and Islamic Society of Greater Valley Forge in Devon stepped in and offered the family financial assistance and access to local resources.
- “They supported us and helped us get on our feet,” Hossain said. “My mom began a full-time job, and I also started working part time the following year.”
- Hossain said his family didn’t own a car until he turned 16 and learned to drive, so for transportation assistance, “all of our neighbors were there.” His plan after high school graduation was to attend community college while working to save money, but counselors, teachers and principals along the way saw his potential and encouraged him to reach higher.
- Malinda McKillip, who is now the principal of French Creek Elementary School in Owen J. Roberts School District, taught Hossain in fifth grade at Whitehall Elementary. “She was my first teacher in the United States and helped me immensely by focusing on my strengths and weaknesses to ensure I was succeeding,” he said.
- At Stewart Middle School, then principal Dr. Rachel Holler (she is now a program director for Quakertown Community School District) motivated Hossain and later helped him with college applications.
- Hossain also credits his high school mentor, Martina Walls, who is now the principal at Stewart Middle School, and NAHS guidance counselor Ernest Hadrick, in helping him earn a full academic scholarship to attend F&M.
- “Norristown is what I consider home,” he said. “When my family was in most desperate need, the community that stood up and said, ‘We will take care of them’ was the Norristown community. Whether it was Norristown Area School District or the Norristown community in which I lived, the people were the ones who responded, aiding to help.
- “I’m indebted to not only just the country in general, because of who I am today, but to the Norristown community for what they’ve done for me. Because of everything going on with illegal immigration, I’ve had classmates whose parents aren’t legal, so in terms of what I can do to make an impact, that is huge. Because I’ve succeeded so much in life, I owe a lot of it to the community that once helped me grow to who I am today.”
- Norristown resident Diana Millner served on the regional panel that selected Hossain for the Truman. “I was really taken by his personal narrative as well as the work that he was involved in,” Millner said, adding that she was “at least halfway through his application” before noticing Hossain’s Norristown address.
- Millner, whose husband is Norristown Councilman Marlon Millner, is originally from Cambridge, Mass. She was awarded the Truman as a junior at Syracuse University and used the foundation’s financial support to attend graduate school at MIT. A mother of two young children, Millner works for the Stoneleigh Foundation in Philadelphia, which supports improving the systems that serve at-risk youth. She also serves on the Weed and Seed Steering Committee.
- “I’ve spent five years reviewing dozens of applications from some of the brightest and most promising students in the region who are competing for this scholarship,” Hossain said. “There are lots of prestigious academic scholarships out there. The distinction with the Truman is it is one that awards both academic excellence and a commitment to public service.
- “One of the things Akbar said in his interview, which we were all struck by, is, were it not for the intervention and support of the folks in Norristown, he would not be sitting in front of us.
- “He’s a product of that school system (NASD), and I think that’s a testament to him and his family but also to what can come out of a school system that’s not always looked at favorably. I believe that Akbar is someone who is deeply connected and committed to his community.”
- Hossain intends to stay in the Philadelphia area and work in immigration law. An immigration course he took at F&M gave him the opportunity to work with a PIRC (Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center) lawyer handling an asylum case.
- “This person (a Sudanese asylum seeker) was raped and tortured back in his country, and he was trying to get into the U.S.,” Hossain said, adding that U.S. immigration laws are “understandably strict, but so strict that they’re designed to keep people out.
- “If you don’t have the right paperwork, you get arrested and put into a detention center. (Asylum seekers) are escaping the great horrors of the world, and our response is to lock them away. There are many other developing countries that do not do this, and maybe some of that can be explored.
- “In a sense I’ve seen the best that the U.S. immigration system can offer — an example is myself — and I’ve also seen the worst that the U.S. immigration system can do to a human being because of the conditions the client I worked with dealt with. That’s what motivated me to go into this work. There are alarming inadequacies in U.S. immigration law. But that can be fixed. I’m hoping to make an impact in that I field.”
- Millner said Hossain’s is the “classic American story. He represents a family that came from a different country and tried the best they could to do things legally and worked really hard to establish themselves. A process like the Truman can actually affirm that and make it legitimate.”
- She hopes Hossain’s success story inspires the community “to think about how diversity actually can help us and not hurt us and how important it is for us to be able to come together to think through solutions to the challenges that we have. Because without understanding all the various elements of our community,” she said, “it’s really hard to be able to address the challenges that we have, like immigration.
- “It’s also a great challenge for the community to think about how to produce more Akbars,” Millner continued. “It requires an investment in the schools, a real investment in the community institutions that can help support struggling families and looking at how you talk productively about changes in our community and how best to address them.”
- Hossain said, “Norristown is often stigmatized, but I’m living proof that it does produce leaders of tomorrow because of the people that help our young leaders grow.”
- “I wouldn’t say I’m a unique story. I would say I’m unique in the sense that I sought out the help. If no one responded to me seeking out help, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
- “My commitment to serve the community and my passion for public service derive from the fact that that I am a product of a community that never gave up on me,” he said. “It’s this passion that has led to my work with the asylum cases, the refugees and the low-income tax clients. I feel that I owe something back to the country, to the community.”
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