How the Carolinas Initiative Helped Shape This Student’s Path

Nazanin Ghulami’s dreams of studying engineering have come true

This is the first in a series of stories about some of our newest Blue Devils.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls over age 12 are strictly prohibited from attending school. That would have been Nazanin Ghulami’s fate had her family not made it to the U.S.

She, her mother, and younger brother fled their homeland, seeking asylum in Indonesia before coming to Durham when she was 12.

This year, Ghulami’s dreams of studying engineering have come true, thanks to Duke’s Initiative for Students from the Carolinas. The program provides full tuition grants to admitted undergraduate North Carolina and South Carolina residents whose families have an annual income of $150,000 or less.

Grants to admitted Carolinas residents

“Without this support, I could never have imagined attending Duke without being buried in student debt," said Ghulami. “As a first-generation student in my small, single-parent family, I would have been under a lot of pressure to begin offering financial stability while at the same time paying my student loans.”

Ghulami said she is fortunate to have a mother who prioritized her education.

“My mother had to follow the social standards that had been set for women in Afghanistan, putting in early adulthood. Having experienced this, she left her home behind to ensure I wouldn’t fall victim to the same oppressions,” she said.

Ghulami learned about the scholarship initiative while attending a panel discussion as part of Duke’s Health and Environmental Science program (HESP) for high schoolers.

At Durham’s Riverside High School, Ghulami enrolled in several engineering-related classes.

“It's fun to be able to do hands-on things. And with STEM being so inaccessible where I come from, I guess it just felt like I wanted to explore that uncharted territory more,” she said.

From engineering to theater

Ghulami graduated from high school at 16 and turns 17 in August. Much of her early education was the result of homeschooling. While in Indonesia, she attended the Refugee Learning Center.

“It was nice to have a community of refugees who cared about our education, especially as women, to make sure that we did not follow in the same footsteps that our ancestors,” she said.

Ghulami said she is thrilled to join Duke’s Society of Women Engineers. She also looks forward to channeling the theatrical talents she began developing at Riverside High into performances with Duke’s Hoof 'n' Horn musical theater organization.