A Syrian Refugee's Improbable Journey to Graduating from UVA

The Final Exercises procession that takes graduating University of Virginia students down the length of the Lawn takes about 375 footsteps.

However, to fully grasp Dareen Aloudeh’s accomplishment of graduating from UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences this spring with a double major in biology and Middle Eastern language and literature you need to navigate back to the first steps of a remarkable journey that began nearly 15 years ago in her war-torn home country of Syria.

Aloudeh was already married with four children, including a daughter, Hajer, with spina bifida. Her family lived in a shelter in Damascus for nearly four months after their house was bombed, and the ongoing civil war made it impossible for her youngest daughter, Hajer, to get the operations and specialized treatment she needed. So, Aloudeh and her husband, Ahmad Sheikh Abdulsalam, made the difficult decision to leave Syria with their children. After nearly three years in Egypt, they were among a small group of Syrian refugees granted permission in 2015 to resettle in Virginia, where they learned UVA Health Children’s Hospital could provide Hajer the care she needs.

None of them spoke a word of English at that point, “not even A-B-C,” Aloudeh said recently, recounting the next phase of a journey that began with her completing her GED and culminated with her being awarded the Class of 26’s UVA Trustees’ Cultural Fluency Award during Valedictory Exercises. Aloudeh, 47, is the first College of Arts & Sciences transfer student to win the award, established in 1996 to recognize a graduating student who has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to fostering understanding, empathy and connection across cultures and communities.

Aloudeh had to leave school early in Syria after her father died to help with the family business, so in addition to acclimating to life in the United States while learning a new language and navigating the U.S. health system with her youngest daughter, she decided to complete her GED at the age of 41. From there, she completed her associate’s degree at Piedmont Virginia Community College, which offered her a path to attend UVA on scholarship.

“My progress was not linear,” Aloudeh wrote in her application to UVA’s Summer Advancement Bridge Program for Community College Students. “I am a mother, a homemaker, and the main caretaker of a special-needs, exceptional little girl. I had to find time to study a new language and learn the nuances of the American culture in the midst of my other responsibilities. Thankfully, once the education flame was reignited, I felt that I was unstoppable.”

Discovering a new calling

Aloudeh’s frequent trips with her daughter to UVA Hospital for surgeries and other treatments ignited her interest in pursuing a career in health care. She began by working at the hospital as a certified nursing assistant in the NICU unit, working the night shift and assisting Arabic-speaking families to communicate with health care teams. As she pursued her associate’s degree from PVCC, she also earned her phlebotomist certification, which allowed her to start working full-time at the UVA hospital taking blood samples from patients while continuing her studies.

As her four children settled into school locally, she volunteered as a classroom assistant in a Charlottesville public elementary school serving a large concentration of English-as-a-Second-Language students. During the pandemic, she also volunteered at the Charlottesville Free Clinic, assisting with paperwork and collecting nasal swabs for COVID-19 tests through car windows at a drop-in center.

While her husband — a tailor and clothing designer by trade — earned money as an Uber driver, Aloudeh juggled her own courses at PVCC with tending to her youngest daughter’s medical needs along with her volunteer commitments and other family obligations.

“I worked full-time during the night shift at the hospital, and in the daytime, I was full-time taking care of my children and taking classes,” Aloudeh said. “It was a hard time.”

When she was granted admission to UVA through the University’s Summer Advancement Bridge Program for Community College Students, Arts & Sciences Academic Advising Dean Elizabeth Ozment was one of the first people to recognize Aloudeh’s drive and ambition.

“We had identified in her application materials that Dareen was just a really amazing person,” Ozment said. “She has so many things that she’s juggling at once, and she’s able to balance all of it with grace and enthusiasm. From the beginning, I could tell that she was fearless. I don’t think there really is much that can hold her back.”

Aloudeh has made time to serve as an advocate for fellow transfer students, Ozment said, both as a transfer ambassador visiting Virginia community colleges to encourage other students from underrepresented groups to pursue opportunities at UVA, and as a friend and mentor for younger classmates on Grounds.

Fellow community-college transfer student Durar Ahmed first met Aloudeh in an Arabic class they both took in the spring of 2025.

“One thing that has especially inspired me is how willing she is to help others academically. Whenever I was selecting classes for a new semester, Dareen would always take the time to guide me and share thoughtful advice about which courses to take,” Ahmed said. “She would tell me about her own experiences in certain classes, what to expect, and how best to prepare, which helped me feel much more confident and prepared in planning my academic path at UVA.”

Ava Sedghian met Aloude on the first day of her Calculus I class during Sedghian’s first semester back at UVA following cancer treatment. Physically she felt healthy, Sedghian said, but she was struggling mentally and still trying to feel like herself again.

“Dareen helped me more than she probably even knows,” Sedghian said. “She was always checking in on me, listening to me, and giving me advice whenever I needed it. She made me feel cared about during a really difficult time in my life.

Aloudeh became like a second mom to her, Sedghian added.

“I remember hearing her talk about leaving Syria and having to start over with her family in a completely new country without even knowing English. Just hearing about everything they went through and the strength they had honestly changed me. Even now when I think about it, I get emotional. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone whose story impacted me as deeply as hers did.

“What amazes me too is how she somehow balanced everything. She worked, went to school full time at UVA, and took care of her four kids all at the same time. I genuinely don’t know how she did it. Most people would have given up, but she never did.”

A research focus

Aloudeh was one of only a few transfer students invited to the Department of Biology’s Bachelor of Science program, which requires extra coursework and lab work and is intended for students in a research-focused major. Shortly after Aloudeh started at UVA, Ozment helped to connect Aloudeh with Amanda Gibson, an associate professor of biology who offered Aloudeh a research assistant position in her lab. At the same time, Aloudeh served as an Arabic language tutor for fellow students and served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for Arabic courses taught in the Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures.

Aloudeh next plans to pursue a master’s in laboratory science, en route to her long-term goal of medical school. Her two oldest daughters have graduated from college: the eldest, Reham, starts dental school this fall, while her second-oldest daughter, Laila, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University last month and is considering law school. Hajer and her son, Saeed, are students at Charlottesville High School; Aloudeh continues to work at UVA Hospital as a phlebotomist, but she and her husband also recently opened their own clothing alterations and tailoring business in Charlottesville.

“It’s been a long journey, but I enjoy every moment,” Aloudeh said. “I enjoy every moment with my families, my studies, everything. I am lucky to have my family. We’ve been challenged, again and again, but we’ve grown up together. We are the best together, and everything amazing that’s happened to me has been because of them. My children and my husband, they are my five superheroes.”