CAA is proud to announce our third prize winner as Omari Ongena. He was awarded $1,000 as one of our winners for participating in our 2018 senior survey. This survey is a chance for CAA to get feedback from our students about our service. At CAA, we were honored to assist Omari through the college admissions process. He wrote in the survey that “CAA helped a lot” and that our assistance was part of what made him successful. He credits CAA with helping him understand the financial aid process.
Omari has a unique story. He grew up in Tanzania and came to the United States about two years ago. In Tanzania, he attended a large, French-speaking school focused on science. It was a school of about 800 students. In addition to his regular schoolwork, he studied for two hours each day after school to learn English, demonstrating his dedication and diligence.
For his last two years of high school, Omari attended school in the United States. It was a challenge, he says, because he was still learning English and adapting to a new culture. He found his computer courses to be his most difficult because, even though he enjoyed the classes, computers were a brand new experience for him. He had not had access to a computer in Tanzania. Omari has overcome many obstacles in his educational journey. However, he still took time to have fun with his classmates and enjoyed playing as a striker on his high school soccer team.
As the oldest of his siblings, he is the first in his family to attend college. This fall, Omari will attend Prince George’s Community College and study Nursing. He plans to live at home and commute to school to earn his degree for now. After he completes his associate’s, he will continue on to earn his Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
Omari tells us that he was inspired to pursue nursing because he has seen so many sick people in his home country of Tanzania. Nursing is his dream career because his passion is to use medical care to help people with disease and he wants to be part of making people well. The CAA coaches believe that Omari will make a big difference in his community by entering such a noble profession.
Omari shared that without CAA “I couldn't have done anything on my college process.” His parents are proud of his hard work and determination. At CAA, we join them by saying congrats, Omari, and best wishes!
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