There is an expression Darshini Roopnarine, Ph.D., lied to use with her students when she was the director of Le Moyne’s Collegiate Science, Technology and Engineering Program (CSTEP), Roopnarine often found herself uttering those words – part affirmation, part command – to the young adults she worked with every day. An upcoming graduate school interview … the difficult conversation you’re about to have with a friend or roommate, that calculus final worth 40 percent of your grade. In the face of all of these challenges, Roopnarine repeated those words to her students.
One CSTEP alumnus, Zacharia Mohamed ’16, knows the maxim well. He was on the receiving end of it many times. Mohamed earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Le Moyne and a medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University. He is currently completing a residency at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. Roopnarine is not surprised by his success at all. She knows him as someone with grace and fortitude, who focuses on the positive and thrives doing the things he loves.
The journey that led Mohamed to medical school began when he was less than a year old. A civil war overtook his village in his native Somalia. In the midst of the chaos, the majority of his family became separated, but his sister, Shukri, then just 10 years old, managed to stay with him. Then, as she was trying to carry him to safety, a bullet struck her. With the aid of two Italian nurses assigned to the conflict zone, she recovered, and the siblings eventually made their way west to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northwest Kenya, where they remained for the next 10 years.
Life in Kakuma was largely about survival. Its residents were busy making sure they had food, shelter and fresh water. Health care, like education, was a luxury, Mohamed said. While there was a small clinic in the camp, it was overwhelmed by need, short of staff and other vital resources like medication. Mohamed recalled seeing long lines of people waiting to receive treatment. Malnutrition, communicable disease outbreaks and malaria were known to be problems there.
“My sister took on the responsibility of making sure that I was healthy, including cooking, cleaning and providing safe drinking water,” he said. “Fortunately, and because of her care, I was able to avoid contracting the diseases that affected many of the people around us. For others, the consequences of limited medical assistance were dire.”
In 2005, Mohamed, along with his sister and infant nephew, came to the U.S. with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Catholic Charities. It opened up “a world of opportunities,” he said. For the first time, he was able to attend school, which was not possible in Kenya, and to learn to read and write. Mohamed thought about what his sister told him about the nurses who came to their aid in Somalia and what he witnessed in Kakuma. He knew how he wanted to leave his mark in the world – by becoming a doctor.
Now that he has done just that, Mohamed hopes one day to return to Kenya, not as a refugee but as a doctor, committed to healing. For him, success is not just about personal accomplishment. It is about giving back to others. That's what gives life meaning.
“Everyone has an incredible story to tell. You just have to get to know them,” he said. “My goal is to take my passion for medicine and be able to help people in need in order to give back and help others as my family and I have been helped.”
This is part of a series of stories about Le Moyne's biology program.