Selamawit

My name is Selamawit and I was born in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. As a child I did not really have any big dreams for myself; I did not even know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember, in fourth grade when our homeroom teacher went around the class and asked what we wanted to become when we grew up I said that I wanted to be a teacher because that was what most of my classmates were saying they wanted to become. It was after I came to the U.S that I discovered my passion and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, which is become a voice to girls around the world who cannot speak for themselves. One time I was watching the “Oprah” show and I learned about girls who suffer from obstruct Fistula, childbirth injury.  Soon, I did more research and found a documentary film called “A Walk to Beautiful” which was set in Ethiopia. From that point on, raising awareness for Fistula became my mission and becoming a voice for those girls who suffer from it became my dream.  Therefore, I want to work at the United Nations to make my dream a reality.

As of now I am studying psychology with an intended minor of public health administration at Lehman College. I chose  psychology as my major because I wanted to learn how people process information and make decisions out of it. Moreover, in most cases obstrict fistula result from not having a developed physical body to carry out pregnancy; and this is a result of early marriage.  For that reason, bringing early marriage to an end would help prevent obstruct fistula.  Consequently, in order to stop early marriage one will have to approach the people in the community in a way that will make them realize the problem they are causing in these girls lives without being too critical of their tradition. Therefore, studying psychology will be able help me to do so.

New York Needs You (NYNY) will help me achieve my dream by helping me develop leadership skills and meeting new people from different professions that will allow me to build a network to hopefully help me to fulfill my goals. In addition, in every workshop I had already attended I had met many mentor-coaches as well as Fellows who encouraged me to keep on informing people about fistula. Moreover, some of the mentors I have met have provided me with some information as to how I can be a voice for fistula while I am still in school. NYNY inspires me to be my best self at all-time. It leaves me with more determination, dreams and most importantly more faith in myself to let my voice be heard by everyone.