Iraqi Teen Finds Peaceful Place
to Study at Maine College
MPBN Radio Story - March 7, 2007

An Iraqi teenager whose story was featured on ABC “World News Tonight” in December has arrived in Maine on a full four-year scholarship to Thomas College in Waterville. Dan, whose last name is being kept private for security reasons, will begin classes tomorrow. Dan’s dangerous exodus from Baghdad would not have been possible without help from a philanthropist, an ABC news crew, and Maine’s two senators. Susan Sharon reports:

Susan Sharon: The journey from Bagdad to Waterville, Maine is a strange one for Dan, who is small and thin and looks several years younger than almost 19 years old. Wearing a red, Thomas College button-down shirt, Dan smiled often during a news conference, but privately he spoke in poignant detail about the effects of the war on his life. He used to play soccer in the streets of his neighborhood. He studied for classes in the flower garden outside his apartment. Now his family spends most of their time inside, in the dark. His father, who makes ceramic tile, hasn’t worked in two months because of the violence.

Dan: I want to help my country, but how, I don’t know because it’s hard to help a country who I guess has no government. If we had a government we could walk in street later. We walk in street to get to highway, take a taxi, and go to school every day. It’s very hard.

Susan Sharon: Dan was the top student at his school in Bagdad and in December he granted an interview to an ABC reporter who asked him to talk about the lack of opportunity for young people and about his daily struggles. Dan also shared the story of his best friend, Mohammad. Two years ago, the two of them were walking to their tutor’s house when all of a sudden gunfire erupted.

Dan: So I jump on the ground and I saw my friend Mohammad landing on the ground. So I was waiting for the gunshots to stop. So it stopped, and I told Mohammad, “Come on, let’s go home. We don’t have to go to teacher.” I realized that Mohammad was not responding, not responding to me and I saw blood on the ground. So I know he was shot.

Susan Sharon: Dan ran to his friend’s mother’s house and told her what happened. The two of them jumped in her car, drove back, picked up Mohammad, and rushed him to the hospital, but he did not survive. For Dan, his loss has been the war’s most painful scar.

Dan: I can’t forget it. I’m trying to, but I can’t.

Susan Sharon: Back home in upstate New York, Paul Schupf, an investor and philanthropist with ties to several private colleges, saw the ABC story and was moved by Dan’s plight. Dan plays the oboe and Schupf also loves music. At the end of the report, Dan expressed his wish to come to the United States to attend college. Schupf says he immediately picked up the phone, called the president of Thomas College and offered to set up a scholarship fund for Iraqi students.

Paul Schupf: Why Thomas College? Because it’s a low key college. It’s not fancy like Colby and Colgate, and it’s low key. I’ve been there a lot. I got my honorary degree from Thomas College two years ago and it’s exactly the kind of place that somebody like Dan should go to.

Susan Sharon: Getting Dan out of Baghdad was tricky. His story generated unexpected publicity and his good fortune became the talk of his neighborhood. Twice, he says, there were attempts on his life. He worried his younger brother would be kidnapped or worse and he told his family he would not come to Maine unless they would agree to move to a safer place in northern Iraq. Dan, himself, was sheparded out of the country with the help of ABC and then he waited in Jordan for the next step. Thomas College President George Spann picks up the story.

George Spann: Soon thereafter senators Olympia Snow and Susan Collins contacted me and offered assistance. With the help of members of their staffs we expedited the process of getting Dan to apply for his student visa and then to the United States.

Susan Sharon: Because Thomas College guarantees job placement after graduation, one school administrator joked that when Dan graduates in 2011 with a degree in computer science, it will mark the first time the school has placed anyone in Iraq. Dan will be one of about a dozen foreign students at Thomas College, and depending upon how he fairs, he may be the first of several Iraqi students to benefit from the Schupf Scholarship.

Dan: I will work hard. I don’t want to fail anybody. I will make everyone proud of me. I will make sure of that.

Susan Sharon: Dan’s first official day of classes begins Tuesday. So far he seems to be making the adjustment well. He describes Maine’s weather as cold and wonderful. This is the first time he has ever seen snow.

For MPBN News , I’m Susan Sharon.

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