Samira Hassan rediscovered her love of education at San Diego City College. “If it were not for City, I would not be who I am or where I am today,” she said.
In just a few weeks, Hassan will join City’s Umoja community at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park for the college’s 112th commencement ceremony. Less than three months later, she will settle in at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia – a historically Black university founded in 1865 and the first HBCU in the United States to confer graduate degrees to African Americans. A Hoffman Agency Scholarship, which covers tuition and fees for a California Community College student who transfers to an HBCU, will cover her final two years of an undergraduate education.
“I’m really excited. I’m overly excited. I’m ready to go right now.”
It’s been quite a journey. The daughter of immigrants who fled Somalia during the country’s civil war and later settled in San Diego, Hassan was raised in the heart of City Heights, a chronically underserved neighborhood and one of the most diverse communities in the state, if not the nation. It shaped who she is.
“When you grow up in a community like that, you witness and become aware of a lot of different disparities at a very young age. But you also witness a lot of resilience,” she said. Although home to schools with dedicated teachers, campus resources are not as abundant as elsewhere in the city. Which is why her mom insisted she choice out of her neighborhood schools. That meant attending schools with a less diverse populations, which – for a young, Black, hijabi woman – led to more than an occasional microaggression.
“No matter if you’re a Black person from the South or a Black person from City Heights, our experiences are so similar,” she said. “For example, Black students have to take second or third jobs at higher rates to help them and their families get by, but there is virtually no acknowledgement of that when it comes to asking for a little more time to turn in an assignment.”
Perseverance might as well be Hassan’s middle name. She was active with community-driven organizations such as Mid-City CAN and the Aja Project’s Back Alley Poetry Club. She became the first person in her family to earn a diploma when she graduated from Patrick Henry High School. At City College, she found further empowerment through the Black student experience. She immersed herself in City Times Media and built lasting relationships with mentors and peers through the Umoja community, an experience she describes as “life-changing.”
“Dr. Rob (Rubalcaba), Professor (Ebony) Tyree, Dr. Erin Charlens, the entire Umoja staff, they not only dedicate themselves to making sure you get a great education, but they strengthen your character as well. When I tell you that faculty and staff there really, really care about their students, they really, really do care about their students,” said Hassan. “They pour their entire being into their students, and I’m an example of that.”