ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Shafiqa Omarkhail arrived in Virginia unable to read and write in her native language -- and definitely not in English. Three years later, the Alexandria high school senior is on the fast track to becoming a nurse.
For her, America really is the land of opportunity, the place where dreams come true.
"I can go to school, I can get my diploma, and I can be someone in the future," she said. "Back home, I couldn't think of anything I could be."
Her smile belies the challenges of her childhood. Even now, only one in three Afghan girls goes to school, according to the United Nation’s Girls’ Education Initiative.
“My dad didn't want to risk our lives,” Shafiqa said. Her father, Mirwais Omarkhail, said some 200 girls were poisoned by the Taliban at the school she would have attended.
"They were in the hospitalized," he recalled. "And after that, I decided no school anymore."
He was a translator for the US Army, so he was able to get a visa, and bring his family to Alexandria. Shafiqa said, “I feel great” about the U.S., with a huge smile.
Three years at the International Academy at T.C. Williams High School has elevated her from failing to A's and B's.
“I've seen her grow and mature so much,” Jovita Gill said, one of her teachers.
This year, she has interned at two different dental practices, cleaning instruments and taking x-rays. Now, she knows what she wants to do.
"My hope is to graduate from high school, continue to college, and be a good nurse…To help people," she said.
"I don't have a word to say for that,” said her father. “Like better than proud."
Shafiqa still has years of education ahead of her, but no doubt that she'll succeed.
“I want to tell the students to never give up on your dreams…. Fight for yourself," she said. "Take a risk.”
Shafiqa will go to Northern Virginia Community College in the fall, then on to a four-year school, and then nursing.
She said with a smile and a laugh that she's only 10 percent of the way to her goal. But it's a dream she said she could never have fulfilled in Afghanistan.