Israel Niguissie

My name is Israel Nigussie. I am a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park majoring in Public Health. My career goal is in medicine with an ambition to go back to my country Ethiopia and help the economically disadvantaged community get better medical care. I was a biology teacher in the rural part of Ethiopia before I began pursuing my goal of studying medicine. I succeeded in joining medical school back home and only after nearly one year of studying medicine, did I get the opportunity to legally immigrate to the United States. Then I had to do everything all over again before going to medical school in this country. I have accepted this challenge and, after going through a few years of hard work, I am remarkably close to realizing my dream.

I work as a part-time elderly caregiver. Yet, with more course load and dire need to remain in an excellent academic standing, I need to cut the hours I spend working and I depend on scholarships and grants to cover for my living expenses. The National Council of Jewish Women is one of the organizations that has provided me with a recurring scholarship for which I am very thankful.