My name is Hasan AlAdili. I am from Bethlehem, Palestine. I am a biology major at Loyola University Chicago and I am graduating at the end of this semester. Three and a half years ago, I came to the US to become a doctor, and this is how I am going to spend the next four years of my life.

Throughout this semester I have volunteered for the employment and medical departments at Heartland Alliance. Heartland is a non-profit organization that provide services for refugees who arrive to the US from all over the world. The services we provide at Heartland include housing, medical care, employment and education. I decided to volunteer at Heartland because I myself come from a country that has over 7.2 million refugees scattered in Palestine and all over the world, and this is precisely why I have a sense of responsibility toward every refugee in the US. I realize the language and culture difficulty that all refugees face as I myself had to adjust to language and culture when I first came to America, and this is why I have given a lot of time to help our Iraqi participants who only speak Arabic and face everyday difficulties trying to understand what the people on the bus, the train or at the grocery store are saying.

As I plan to pursue a job as a physician, I believe that I should become more familiar with society problems before individuals pain. I have been exposed to a lot of problems that unfortunate individuals face everyday. This gave me the necessary real-life experience of interacting with clients, trying to understand their problems and finally attempting to fix them. Moreover, I believe I have gained lots of professional and team-work skills, as well as one on one interaction experience.