Richards celebrates Arab American History Month

To recognize Arab American History Month, Community High School District 218 has celebrated staff members and graduates who have achieved noteworthy success academically, professionally, artistically, in public service, or in some other field of endeavor.

Richards High School celebrated many alumni including:

Sabrina Said, Class of 2010

Sabrina earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Illinois State University in 2014. She trained in television writing, acting and improv at Second City for two years.

She also spent a year teaching English abroad in Korea, then moved to New York and worked in television as a production & social media assistant for shows, including “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” “Jersey Shore,” and others. She is also working currently as a freelance writer.

“I’m the only Arab (and Arab woman) that was in ANY of those show rooms at those shows. I want others that are interested to pursue TV & movies so we have a say in telling the truth about us and change the narrative,” she said.

Mahmoud Jallid Abdel, Class of 2013

Mahmoud is a first generation college student that is now in his final year of medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Soon he will start his physician residency at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Rana Salameh, Class of 2012

Rana is a first-generation Palestinian American born and raised in Oak Lawn. She graduated from Benedictine University in 2016 and is currently at Midwestern University Chicago College Optometry with an expected graduation of May 2022.

Creen Ahmad, Class of 2017

Creen is currently a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She studies Plant Biotechnology with minors in Chemistry and Informatics.

Creen is a McNair Scholar at the university, which has allowed her to pursue research that she hopes to continue in graduate school. The research is focused on using CRISPR/cas9 on Sorghum plants for breeding purposes with long-term goals of using the plant for biofuel.

Ramona Bourjas, Class of 2018

Valedictorian of her senior class at Richards, Ramona is a junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She pursues a double major in Finance and Accountancy in the Gies College of Business.

She has earned an internship this coming summer in audit and assurance at Deloitte TTL in Chicago. She has served as a senior consultant at Illinois Business Consulting, a member of the Edmund J. James Scholar Honors Program at the university, a member of Phi Chi Theta Professional Business Fraternity, and director of Property Management on the Executive Board of Alpha Gamma Delta Women’s Fraternity.

Ramona possesses native proficiency in Arabic and earned the Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish. Finally, she is a Dean’s List student.

Sami Bourjas, Class of 2017

Sami earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Today he has started law school at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He has worked as a clerk at a law firm and received a full scholarship to law school. As an undergraduate he served as captain of the Fighting Illini cheerleading team.