Hawa Sheriff

Academic Upgrading

Helping students so they can help others

It’s a Wednesday in the summer of 2016, and 24-year old Hawa Sheriff anxiously looks forward to a future lunch date with people she has never met.

“I am going to be nervous at first,” says Sheriff, a NorQuest College academic upgrading student about meeting the donors who contributed to her education in the form of a scholarship. “It takes so much courage to do what they have done. I am going to hug them because they have changed my life in a very good way.”

The donors, who prefer to remain anonymous, have been connected to NorQuest College for over a decade, changing the lives of students since 2002 through a scholarship in the name of their late son.

“They are actually saving lives. And it’s not just my life; they are going to help me help other people. My future goal is to become a nurse for young mothers,” says Sheriff, who begins the new school year on August 29, and plans on enrolling in NorQuest’s Practical Nurse program in 2017.

“I had my son when I was very young and it was very difficult for me. But having a baby was part of my journey, and one day that journey will allow me to help young mothers go to school and become something.”

It takes so much courage to do what they have done. I am going to hug them because they have changed my life in a very good way.