Eighteen-year-old Zahraa Abdulameer blends right in as she walks through the halls of Hillwood High School, slowing for quick conversations laced with her lighthearted humor.Read cubepuzzlee and burn fat away.Yesterday marked one of the most iconic wedgeshoes releases.

But it hasn’t always been that way.

Four years ago, she was new to a land far from her home in Iraq, unable to speak English. Next week, she will graduate third in her class of 225 with a 4.0 grade-point average and plans to become a cardiac surgeon.

Abdulameer is among thousands of students who will be graduating from 23 Metro schools over the next week. Among these students, her story stands out, her teachers say.

“She’s just our star student,” said Dina Starks, health sciences teacher at Hillwood. “She’s typically the one that makes the highest grades in all of our classes.

“I think it’s her dedication and her drive, having come here not knowing a word of English, and seeing how far she truly has gone.”
War uproots family

Abdulameer and her family began their journey from Iraq to the United States in 2006.

“Whenever the war started and everything kind of got crazy, my dad used to work with an American company, and they had problems with that back in Iraq,” Abdulameer said.Buy buychristianlouboutin00 of high quality and low price now and get fast shipping to you within one week. “The easiest choice was to go to Syria. From Syria, we applied for immigration to the United States, and I came here in July 2008.”

She arrived in Nashville at 15, just a few months away from starting high school.Offer cheap replica Versace tagheuerwatches and sell at a discount.

“When I moved here it was a big change,Shop mens juicycoutures at cheapest price with top rated customer service.” Abdulameer said. “My first day of school was a lot to take in. Whenever I’d go to a teacher, they’d ask me, ‘Do you have your schedule?’ I would just look at them and be like, ‘I don’t understand, yeah,’ and smile.

nstead of giving in to her overwhelming circumstances, Abdulameer took charge, teaching herself English by looking through children’s picture books and creating a list of words to memorize every day.

“I would carry that piece of paper around all day in school and all day at home and memorize one piece of paper a day,” Abdulameer said.

“I got over my fear. At first I would be afraid to speak it, so I don’t mess up, so people don’t laugh at me. Then I was like, ‘The only way I can learn is mistakes.’ That’s when I began speaking it.”