As you all know, our staff member, Lamees Qassim is our Middle School Program Director here at CIANA. What you may not know is that Lamees fled war in Iraq and found asylum in the United States when she was just 13 years old. Now in her late 20s, Lamees runs our After-School Middle School Program every weekday, in which she engages middle school children from immigrant families, and in some cases, children who have gone through similar traumatic experiences before they arrived to the United States. Lamees's story touched one of her students, Samia Hug, and Samia decided to show her gratitude and respect for her by writing one of her school papers about Lamees's experience and how Lamees instills confidence in her students every single day. Samia wants her peers and readers to know that no matter how difficult a situation may be, you can always make it through as long as you persevere. Check out Samia's paper in the photo gallery above!