Relocating can be tough for anybody, especially for a teenager. Areeba Hasan, who will graduate from Greenwood Community High School as the salutatorian later this month, can attest to that.
After spending her freshman year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Hasan came to Greenwood three weeks into the school year.
"It was very hard," she said. "I finally found my place and then we moved again."
The move dipped Hasan’s class rank down to 12th, which was not acceptable to her — "It feels good being at the top," she said — so she worked to do something about it.
Hasan credits her parents for making education a priority and creating a home atmosphere conducive to studying. And while she was clearly able to excel across the board academically, Hasan strongly prefers her science classes to, say, history or English.
"It’s just more useful," she said. "Science helps you to understand what’s happening around you. Whether that’s chemistry, physics, biology, you can put that stuff into use."
In August, Hasan will enroll at IUPUI, where she plans to take on a double major in biology and chemistry. Eventually, she hopes to go to medical school and become a doctor.
She’s not yet certain what sort of medicine she’ll specialize in, but she’s sure that she wants to end up somewhere in that field.
"Medicine is fascinating," Hasan said. "The human body itself is a fascinating organism, but the fact that we’re able to change it, that we’re able to manipulate it the way we want to, I think that’s great. And they need people desperately."
Hasan would also like to get involved in public speaking or debate at IUPUI, an activity she enjoyed in Milwaukee but didn’t have available to her at Greenwood.
She knows that taking on a double major in college will be an arduous task, but she’s faced such tests before and knows she’ll have to again to get where she wants to be in life.
"It’s going to be a challenge; I know that for sure," Hasan said. "But I want to go to med school, and you need to be able to take challenges in med school."
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”The Hasan file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Name: Areeba Hasan
Age: 18
Parents: Shakil Hasan and Farah Deeba
Residence: Greenwood
College plans: Will attend IUPUI and double major in biology and chemistry
Career goals: Working in the health care field after going to medical school
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