Rhodes Scholarship’s Atlanta Ties
Ridwan Hassen is one of three college students with Atlanta-area roots recently chosen to become Rhodes Scholars.
In addition to Hassen, new winners of the prestigious award are: Sarah M. Bufkin, an Atlanta graduate from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Sai P. Gourisankar, who is from Atlanta and attends the University of Texas at Austin.
The three are among just 32 Americans selected for the coveted scholarship this year, which provides study at the University of Oxford in England.
As a sophomore, Ridwan Hassen enrolled in advanced placement statistics at South Cobb High School, breezing through every test.
Five years later, his teacher, Victor Burrell, remembers it well: Hassen took 15 tests in the college level course, and missed only two problems.
Still, as much as Burrell was impressed by Hassen’s hard work and ability to master advanced mathematics, he was equally struck by the young man’s big heart and desire to help others.
“As smart as he was, he was the type of guy who seeks out people to help,” said Burrell. “There was this one kid who Ridwan met in PE who had a 2.4 GPA and Ridwan ended up talking to him and telling him he could do better. Ridwan offered to tutor him and help him. He helped motivate that kid to improve his grades — and that classmate is now in college.”
Hassen is now 21 and finishing up his senior year at Dartmouth College. He was recently awarded a 2015 Rhodes Scholarship, considered one of the most prestigious fellowship awards in the world. He is one of 32 young Americans chosen from about 1,600 applicants across the country. Rhodes Scholarships cover all expenses for two to three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.
A straight-A student who skipped his senior year of high school, Hassen first studied at Emory University for two years before transferring to Dartmouth. Hassen plans to study neuroscience and public policy at Oxford in the fall.
“On a personal level, being a Rhodes Scholar validates all of the time, effort and work people have put into me,” Hassen said by phone. “The best part of the scholarship was how it affected my high school. When I visited the school recently, there was a celebration and people were jumping up and down, very happy someone from our community was awarded the scholarship.”
A child of African refugees, both of Hassen’s parents lived through war — his father in Ethiopia, and mother in Somalia. The political turmoil prevented his parents from finishing their schooling, something that was never lost on Hassen, a first-generation college student.
“I never took education for granted,” said Hassen who was born in Atlanta and grew up in Austell. “My parents always told me I had opportunities many people don’t have. From a very young age, I was able to grasp the gravity of what it means to get an education.”
Hassen’s mother, Saada Bayle, often took her children to libraries. Bayle, who works in a window factory and babysits, pushed her children with the hopes of giving them a bright future.
“I don’t want my children to do what I am doing” she said. “I want them to have a better life.”
During a recent interview, his parents beamed with pride — talking about their middle son’s work ethic, as well as his willingness to help his family financially. When he was in high school and college, Hassen worked up to 30 hours a week to help pay bills.
Hassen always loved school, developing an affinity for reading at a young age.
“My parents didn’t have a lot of money but reading — it was like taking a vacation. Reading could take me anywhere. And reading gave me a sense of happiness and understanding I wouldn’t gain otherwise.”
By the time Hassen arrived in Natalie Pope’s advanced placement literature class at South Cobb High, he had a reputation as a phenomenal student.
Even so, Pope was stunned when Hassen and a classmate teamed up to work on poetry project combining prose and critical thinking. The project incorporated various viewpoints about the war in Afghanistan — presented all in poetic verse.
Hassen is one of five children. His two younger siblings also attend Dartmouth, and all of three of them finished high school early. The oldest sibling, Aisha, recently graduated from Emory University and plans to go to medical school in the fall. The second oldest sibling, Mohamoud, attends Georgia State University.
While passionate about many subjects, Hassen is particularly drawn to neuroscience and getting a better understanding of how the brain works. His interests stem from personal experience: he has watched his father, who worked as a janitor, be forced to stop working because of severe epilepsy. One year, his father was hospitalized 30 times.
Over the years, Hassen has served as a refugee tutor and a youth counselor for the Boys & Girls Club. In 2013, Hassen founded the Global Development Project, a charity designed to help build and improve roads, in developing countries. His organization has raised $4,500 to complete and repair a road in northern Somalia to help students travel from their communities to a nearby school. The work is expected to be complete this summer.
Pope said Hassen is the kind of student every teacher wants — and the the kind of person the world needs.
“You know that song (“Greatest Love of All”) when it says, ‘I believe the children are the future?’” she asked. “He is the type of student who makes you believe that song to be true.”
