I’ll start by saying that I wrote this blog about my experience with Sadiq Rahmatullah three different times. And I kept starting over because when I read it, it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t written in a way that really translated what listening to Sadiq did for those who were in the room to hear his message, when he talked about his journey from immigrant to student to graduate to college kid to intern at Vanderbilt University. So, here’s try number four...

There is something so special about listening to students talk about their educational experience when they are taught through Project Based Learning that it often leaves the listener with chills. The courses of lives are literally changed when students are provided with the opportunity to figure out the passions and talents that live inside them; when they have the chance to explore the world through their curiosities; when the work happening in school authentically translates beyond school walls.

I had an amazing opportunity to work with Sadiq, a graduate of Metro Nashville Public Schools, when he was our opening keynote speaker to kick off BIE’s three day PBL Academies in Nashville, Tennessee back in April. When I was tasked with this responsibility, I was excited. A chance to work side-by-side with a student again?! Sign me up, right? I didn’t realize then what a gift that task would really be.

Sadiq and I first met to discuss our ask. We wanted to start the whole conference off with him, as our big reminder of the “end in mind” so the educators learning how to design, coach and lead PBL could get a glimpse of what they were working so hard for. Sadiq politely accepted. “I feel nervous, but I promise I will make you proud.” Here are the highlights of his speech for those of you who missed it, or for those of you who want to invoke it again.

Sadiq’s Story
Sadiq is a refugee. He was born in Burma and due to his religious beliefs, he and his family were denied even basic rights, including attending school. Sadiq’s family moved to Malaysia where they hoped for a better life, with more opportunities, where their children would be “treated like humans” and be able to go to school. But they were denied access to school yet again. Sadiq’s father taught him “everything he knew” but within Sadiq was a longing to have what other kids had; access to an education, the gift of learning. Sadiq and his siblings were bullied because of this lack of education. “What do you know?” these children would taunt. “You don’t even go to school.”

America is the third country in which Sadiq’s family sought refuge. At 15 years old, a kid who up until then had been modestly homeschooled had the chance to enroll in school for the very first time. He was happy and nervous and scared. Every decision he had to make, every experience he was placed in, was brand new to him. The teachers of Metro Nashville Public Schools met Sadiq’s anxiety with empathy and compassion. They guided this new journey of his with words of encouragement, before and after school help, patience, hugs and love. “I had never been hugged before by anyone other than my family. I thought to myself, what kind of place is this, America, where I do not even have schooling yet but I get hugs.”

Success at Metro Nashville
It was with this support from the teachers of the Metro Nashville Schools and his family, particularly his father, that Sadiq’s drive to learn propelled him to success within the school system. When faced with the decision to select an Academy, he selected the Health Sciences Academy because he wanted to learn information that he could bring back to his family. “My mom has hypertension, and it is our fault because all my life, she has had to worry about us. I want information so I can help my mom.”

Luckily for Sadiq, MNPS uses Project Based Learning (PBL) and before he knew it, Sadiq was exploring real challenges, collaborating with students across and beyond his academy. He was learning from his teachers and experts in the field. He was engaging with community and business partners to investigate authentic problems, one of which culminated in Sadiq’s Senior Capstone Project, where he and another student explored the effects of medicine on the functioning of the kidney. They educated community members in a health science fair about alternative options to medicine and the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise. And of course, he brought all of his learning home to help his parents.

In addition to learning content through the analysis and solving of real world problems, Sadiq was also able to interact with the many business and community partners that MNPS uses to promote authentic learning within its academies. Sadiq connected with and then presented to a representative from Vanderbilt University. Through those interactions, Sadiq was offered, and he accepted, an internship at the Vanderbilt University Pharmacology Department.

Follow this thread with me now. Burma. Malaysia. Non-English Speaker. America. Student for the first time at 15. Graduated in THREE  years. First one in his family to graduate high school. First one in his family to attend college. Going to school to be a doctor. All because someone back when Sadiq was a freshman asked a scared kid, what Academy do you want to be in? What do you care about?

Any expert educational speaker could have gotten up and delivered a compelling keynote, packed full of moving statistics and a call to action for the 500 educators who filled the ballroom. What  Sadiq offered that none of them could was the student voice--reminding us that despite everything that gets in the way of doing the really good, important work, we have to press on. It’s because of teachers like those at Metro Nashville Public Schools, like those who made up the audience that day, like all of those reading this right now, that kids like Sadiq want to, as he says, “change the world with a pen and not a gun.”

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