I am overjoyed to share some great news with you. Melak, a   Bishop Maginn senior who survived the war in Iraq and the civil war in Syria, has been accepted to one of the best fashion business schools in New York City. And she’s going.

She is chasing after a life-long dream, and she has been through more than any 100 people should have to endure.

It now looks like she can pull off this very daring and once seemingly hopeless move in her life.

She’s going to the LIM Fashion Business College this coming September, she will graduate from Bishop Maginn in June.

Melak is working an extra job at a fashion goods store in the Albany area, she is applying for more than $50,000 in student loans, and has won a $7,000 scholarship.

Her Army Of Good Mentor Kathleen agreed today to pay her $750 dorm and housing deposit and offered to give her $2,000 for living expenses.

That money clears the way for her to go.

I admit to being wary of this aft first, it just seemed that she was setting herself up for a big and expensive fall. I underestimated her.

This is also a victory for the Army Of Good Refugee Mentor program, started a year ago

Kathleen, like me, is eager to stay with Melak on this journey and help where we can. She is not seeking any additional financial help from us now; she is very determined to do the bulk of it herself.

That is a good idea.

Melak says – and we have all agreed – that she wants to raise the rest of the money herself through working hard, scholarships, and federal student loans.

You may remember that Melak was going to drop out of high school and work at McDonald’s to begin her independent life. She has good reasons for wanting that.

We battled and pleaded and cajoled for a while, but all of us – me, her mentor, Principal Mike Tolan and her beloved teacher Sue Silverstein – who Melak calls “miss” – dug in and said we could only help her if she finished high school.

Melak is tough, and we had a few knockout rounds. Sue Silverstein has done an amazing job at counseling her and guiding her. We all agreed that our mission is to lift these children up, not pull them down.

They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and Melak is as strong-willed and determined as she is brave and bright.

Her family’s life was destroyed twice – once in the Iraq war and once again when they fled into the center of the firestorm that is the Syrian civil war.

She and I hit it off from the start; she signed up for my writing class and also helped me train Zinnia for Bishop Maginn’s therapy work. We stayed in touch, even during the pandemic.

Children were not permitted to play outside in Syria,  but Melak defiantly did play in the bombed-out street, twice barely missing sniper bullets that whizzed past her head.

Her family got to a U.N. refugee camp and made it into the. The U.S. just before the Trump administration slammed the door on refugees.

I’ve had my second vaccine shot so that I can go back to the school in two weeks, and I’m going to meet with Melak for a talk and a celebration.

Thanks to her generous mentor and thanks to those of you who sent donations to help her this past year when she most needed it. Melak loves America and wants to live like a successful American woman.

She will do it, too. I am so happy for her. I told her I would be hovering like a spirit and swoop down when needed. Her mentor says the same thing.