Meet Rashida
2011 CDI Scholar Rashida with USAID counselor
Local Leader, International Impact
“As a young immigrant, I faced lots of challenges navigating life in America. But I also saw opportunities and a chance to truly achieve what was possible.”
I grew up in Sierra Leone, a small, beautiful country on the coast of West Africa that unfortunately suffered a brutal, decade-long civil war that deeply impacted my childhood. By age six I had become all too familiar with death and violence, becoming a victim myself when rebels attacked my town and destroyed everything I once held dear. Still healing from the gunshot wound on my leg and mourning the deaths of relatives and friends, I left Sierra Leone with my family and moved to Guinea, where we lived as refugees for six years before moving to the U.S.
The war disrupted and changed everything — my family, my country, and my education. Fortunately, I had parents who believed in the power of education to transform lives and supported my dreams. As a young immigrant, I faced lots of challenges navigating life in America. But I also saw opportunities and a chance to truly achieve what was possible.
Upon acceptance into CDI, I realized how woefully underprepared I was. It dawned on me that I had no understanding of the college application process, and my fool-proof plan of working hard and getting to college was not enough and quite flawed. Unlike some of my peers, I did not have parents that I could use as resources. CDI taught me how to understand processes, navigate systems, and leverage my skills to achieve success in both my professional and personal life.
During my years at Gettysburg College, CDI remained a constant in my life. By the end of my time there, I had successfully completed two internships (one in Kenya), a semester studying in Ghana, and three on-campus jobs. Through CDI’s network, I secured my first paid internship.
As first-generation students, we are often deterred from pursuing similar opportunities, which are crucial to enhancing our college experience and building our post-college employment viability, for fear that they may put additional stress on our families’ already fragile income. I graduated from Gettysburg with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Africana Studies.
CDI’s commitment to ensuring students attain success does not end at college graduation. With my CDI counselor’s support, I was one of ten finalists in the country to be awarded the USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship. In 2019, I received a Master of International Affairs concentrating in Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. This year, I will be heading to Zimbabwe for my first tour as a USAID Foreign Service Officer. I could have never imagined that any of this would have been possible 21 years ago.
When you support CDI, you are supporting students like me — students with lofty dreams of attaining an education and becoming someone to be proud of. You support outstanding students with vast potential that can be harnessed and enhanced with the right tools and resources. You are bolstering CDI’s ability to provide students with enriching opportunities that equip us with the skills and experience necessary to excel academically, professionally, and even personally. You are supporting CDI’s mission of making higher education accessible to students from low-income households by removing the obstacles that prevent us from making it to college, staying in college, and succeeding in the years after. You help each of us to achieve what is possible.
