Elizabeth Gezehagn has just started her senior year at Suffolk, majoring in global business and finance. But her parents have already begun planning her graduation celebration.
Beloved relatives from Ethiopia will be traveling to Boston for the special day the Gezehagn clan has anticipated for many years. Elizabeth will become the first member of her family to graduate from college, and her achievement is a source of enormous pride for all of them.
The Gezehagns emigrated from Ethiopia before Elizazbeth and her two younger sisters were born. They grew up in Boston and then Revere, where her parents worked several jobs to gain an economic foothold in their new country. Her parents were determined to see their children get a university education. Gezehagn’s interest in Suffolk was piqued as a teen while attending a church nearby on Park Street, and she found the campus a perfect fit.
“At Suffolk, the diversity and emphasis on international students made me feel welcome,” she says. Scholarship support also helped: Gezehagn earned the Anthony Meoli Scholarship for two years running, which the 1963 alumnus created to benefit students from Revere.
She’s been active on and off campus, working as a residence hall office assistant and as a tutor with the Center for Learning & Academic Success, and organizing clothing drives with her family’s church, Ethiopian Evangelical of Boston. She completed an internship with the German technology company TÜV SÜD.
After she completes her undergraduate degree, Gezehagn plans to pursue a graduate degree in finance or work full time. But first she intends to savor the embrace of her family, and appreciate the sacrifices made by her parents to ensure a brighter future for her and her sisters.
“Our parents worked harder than we did, but didn’t get a degree. We are a product of their hard work, and [my graduation] will be my thank you to them,” she says.
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Photography by Michael J. Clarke
FEATURES
| Fall 2022
By Erica Noonan
