When I make new connections and new friendships I feel really happy. I love connecting with people and supporting them.
I've worked as a maths teacher in the past and it's one of the things in life that makes me so happy. I believe and feel like the classroom is my second home. The reason I love teaching so much is because it brings me so much joy to help children expand their horizons and learn new things.
I'm a political refugee. I moved from my home country of Syria because I refused to join the military and the government weren't happy about it. The war is really awful. When I first left Syria I moved to Turkey and was living and working there for 3 years. I was able to teach while I was there which was great, but the UN were able to help me make my move to the UK.
I was about to start working as a maths teacher in a primary school just before the first lockdown. Unfortunately, as many people have experienced over this last year, everything was cancelled, but I'm looking forward to start applying again. I think, beyond how happy I feel teaching, it would also help me to improve my language and gain experience quickly.
The biggest obstacle I've overcome is the language barrier I faced when I first arrived in London. Moving to a new country isn't easy at all. I was working in an Arabic school in Turkey, and while I learned the basics of the Turkish language, I could quite easily live my life speaking in my native tongue. When I came to the UK there was a completely different language and different cultures to get used to. I've had lots of help from different organisations to improve my English and I'm looking forward to doing more.
My ultimate passion is maths. I love how it's universal. It's something that can ground any and every one no matter where you are. One of my goals is to be a GCSE maths teacher and GCSE examiner. I'd also like to complete a masters in maths one day. I've got massive interests in both IT and in accounting as well, I think because they're so closely linked to maths, so I'm really excited to do this accounting course which has a module on accounting software. Having lost an opportunity to teach because of the lockdown, I'm really keen to have this second career option I can turn to so I can secure a job as quickly as possible, in or out of the lockdown.
I never came across organisations like Beam that could help me in the way that I need in either Syria or Turkey. I feel so lucky that I'm here and that the people at beam and yourselves who are donating want to help me reach my goals. I'm really excited about launching my campaign because this is a new opportunity and will help me with getting into the role I want to be in.