All Washington Academic Team winner: Abdoukarim Drammeh

Congratulations to Abdoukarim Drammeh and Siyu Lu, Edmonds Community College's 2012 All Washington Academic Team winners. They will be recognized for their scholarship, leadership, and community service at a ceremony in March at South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia.

“A scholarship helped me pursue my academic goals.”
Abdoukarim Drammeh, Associate of Arts in Business 

Why Edmonds CC? It’s known for its great business program.
Why now? Education is the best resource I can achieve. The level and quality of education I attain will have a great impact on my future career goals.
Biggest challenge: being a full time student and having to work at the same time
Working at: Kemoson Financial Services
Best college experience: the college’s diversity — Edmonds Community College is a place where I have learned a lot from sharing my personal life experiences with different kinds of people, of different ages, nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
Favorite class: ENGL& 102, Composition II — the instructor was very helpful in answering questions and making sure his students were always on the right track. Also, each student had to do a research project on a specific problem affecting Haitians after they were struck with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in January 2010. I did research and wrote an essay about the incapability of the Haitian government to rebuild their school system, and what the consequences will be in Haiti if their educational system is not restored. This class and research project helped me a lot to understand the importance of education, and how it created the huge difference between underdeveloped, developing and developed nations. Edmonds Community College Foundation scholarship recipient: The cost of tuition is very high and receiving a $1,000 scholarship made a huge difference in helping me finance and pursue my academic goals.
Advice for new students: You have to be an embodiment of the “can do” roll up your sleeve spirit that made this country great. Go after what you want, never get discouraged, and leave “quit” out of your vocabulary. You will definitely achieve your academic and career goals because Edmonds CC is a great learning institution.
Interests: working with computers — repairing, installing and troubleshooting software applications
What’s next: transfer to Central Washington University for a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and become a Certified Public Accountant.
Dream job: accountant general at a major public/private accounting firm