Welcome to Queen of Sheba Alumni
Adwa, Tigray - Ethiopia

To Queen Sheba Schools, with Love

In a recent trip to Ethiopia, I was invited by the Queen Sheba Alumni Association in Addis to write an article regarding my memories of the school as well as my journey since I left the school in the 1980’s. I gladly accepted the invitation, but when I sat down to write it, I was not sure where to start or end. I finally decided to start by briefly describing my background, and then explain what I am doing now and finally write some of my reflections on Queen Sheba Schools.

My Background & Journey

I was born and raised in Adwa for most of my childhood. I did part of my elementary school as well as all of my high school education at Queen Sheba Schools. After finishing high school by scoring straight A’s in the national school leaving exam (ESLCE), I joined Gondar College of Medical Sciences and studied medicine. After finishing my medical school education with a “Gold Medal”, I joined the University of Leipzig, Germany where I specialized in Internal Medicine and also did a PhD equivalent thesis about Diabetes in Ethiopia. I then continued my education in the United States where I did Internal Medicine as well as Diabetes & Endocrinology subspecialization at the Cleveland Clinic, which is a world renowned academic medical institution.

My Current Status & Activities

Currently I work at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital, in Philadelphia in the US as an Associate Professor of Medicine in the specialty of Diabetes & Endocrinology. At the same time I am Director of Clinical Diabetes & Endocrinology as well as Program Director of the Fellowship Training Program in Diabetes & Endocrinology. In my current job, I have three areas of responsibility which include patient care (mainly Diabetes & Endocrinology), teaching of medical students, residents and fellows (subspecialization candidates) and doing research in the area of diabetes. My research over the years has included several publications about Diabetes in Ethiopians.

In addition to my regular job duties, I am very active in several US professional organizations and associations. To highlight a few, I am currently Physician Secretary of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) for the subspecialty of Endocrinology and Diabetes. ABIM is the board which creates the rules and guidelines as well as prepares board certifying examinations for all subspecialty candidates in the United States. I am also Secretary of the Philadelphia Endocrine Society which is a regional association of Endocrinologists in the Greater Philadelphia region.

I am also very active in associations which are focused on helping and supporting health care and medical education in Ethiopia. Currently I am a member of the Board of Directors of the organization People to People (P2P) which is an NGO based in the US and founded by Ethiopian Physicians in the Diaspora. This organization has done a lot in Ethiopia in the areas of HIV as well as several other areas. More recently, one of the focus areas of this organization has been supporting academic medical centers and medical schools such as Black Lion Hospital to improve their health care delivery as well as the training programs for specialty and subspecialty physicians. This is being done in close collaboration with Ministry of Health as well as with the leadership of the Medical School at Black Lion Hospital. I am one of the leaders of this initiative and have traveled to Ethiopia several times over the last three years to work on it. I am particularly focused in helping Black Lion Hospital establish the first subspecialty training program in Diabetes & Endocrinology. During my travels to Ethiopia, I was also able to visit and give lectures at other Medical Schools including my Alma mater Gondar Medical School as well as Mekelle Medical School.

Last but not least, I am also busy trying to be a good husband to my wife and a good father to my kids. I have a 10 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. With my busy life, I sometimes feel I do not have enough time for them, but whatever is left I try to spend it with them. I recognize that all what I have achieved would not have been possible without the support and understanding of my wife, who is a Medical Technologist by profession.

In whatever spare time I have (which is getting less and less these days), I like to read. If there is anything I would like to advise the younger generation, it is to develop the habit of reading as early as possible. My belief is that the earlier in life one develops the habit of reading, the wider the gates of knowledge will open to him. Even though I have slowed down recently, I used to be an avid reader of classic literature. My all-time favorites include Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables”, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime & Punishment”, Leo Tolstoy’s “War & Peace”, Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and Addis Alemayehu’s Amharic classic “Fikr Iske Mekabir”. Other things I do in my free time include playing chess and skiing. I am glad that my kids have picked up most of my hobbies as well.

My Reflections on Queen Sheba and growing up in Adwa

I am a proud product of Queen Sheba schools, and the seeds of all what I have accomplished were sown there. I have lots of fond memories from those days. I grew up as the older son of a family with 4 boys and 2 girls. When I was in elementary school, my family used to live within the compounds of the Queen Sheba high school, as my father was the director of the high school. Because of this proximity, my siblings and I used to interact with high school teachers starting from our early ages. As early as age 11, I remember assisting some teachers in duplicating exam papers (using stencils) and in correcting exam results. As the older child of the family, I was old enough to observe how dedicated my father was carrying out his responsibilities. My mother, who educated herself later in life to the level of 12th grade, also had tremendous respect for education. Our parents instilled in me the love of education, but at no time in my childhood have they pressured me to succeed. It was with this background that early in life I noticed education can be fun and at the same time a way to make your future bright.

Who are the people and activities I remember growing up in Adwa? Obviously, there is no way that I can list all people and activities I remember when growing up. One of the people I remember clearly who used to encourage kids to be good at school was Memhir Berhane Mengesha. I also remember a lot of the sports activities conducted in the town in and outside of Queen Sheba. The spirit of sports at that time, which was organized by the likes of Memhir Wohab Saidey, used to be very contagious. We used to enjoy all activities among the teams in Adwa, as well as the occasional games against Axum or Adigrat. Another person, who has influenced me tremendously during my childhood, is my grandfather Sheik Siraj Hashim. I used to spend a lot of time assisting him at his retail shop, and learned from him the value of hard work and discipline.

When I finished high school in Adwa, the whole town was excited at the fact that I scored straight A’s in all the subjects that I took for ESLCE. It turns out that those types of scores were never seen at the school before. The level of excitement with which the Queen Sheba School as well as the people of Adwa received the news of my success was beyond my wildest expectations. It was amazing to see that the whole town cared and talked about how the local kid performed and shared the excitement. This must be the type of situation Hillary Clinton was thinking when she wrote the book “It takes a village to raise a child”, the title of which was ironically taken from an African proverb. Over the years, I have met a lot of successful people who were kids in Adwa when I finished high school, who told me that they were influenced by my success. I am always flattered and honored by their comments. I never thought that, my personal success would touch and influence so many younger kids to do well. I am particularly proud that all my siblings ended up being successful students and professionals in their own rights.

Fast forward…. After so many years, I returned to Adwa and Queen Sheba Schools in 2007. I decided to take a driver from Mekelle via Tembien to Adwa. This enabled me to realize my childhood dream of seeing the historic Adwa mountain chain up-close from behind including the majestic Mount Samayat. Picture As a child, I could only see the tip of Mount Samayat from Adwa, and was always amazed by its grace and wondered how it might look up-close. Given the civil war during those days, there was no way that I could get closer to this mountain. Recently, I was surprised to find that Mount Samayat has been a source of fascination for many including the English traveler and diplomat Henry Salt who visited Ethiopia in the year 1805. He was captivated by its beauty so much so that he made a drawing of this mountain, the original of which is supposedly found in an English museum. Picture I do have now a framed copy of his drawing hanging in my house which reminds me of my childhood mystery mountain.

In my visit to Adwa, I found myself in mixed emotions. I felt that the old town part where I grew up and have lots of memories has deteriorated and gotten smaller as if it shrank. But At the same time, I did notice that a lot of new construction has happened in the area between Adwa and Adi Abun.

My visit to Queen Sheba high school was a very emotional one. It seemed to me that about 25 years after I finished high school, there is nothing much new to be seen. Instead, the classrooms and building have deteriorated at times beyond recognition. Picture I went to visit some of my old classes, and I could not believe what I saw…in the class of 11A, my name which I wrote on the ceiling more than 25 years ago is till there surrounded by names written by others at various times. Picture I was so overwhelmed by emotion so much so that, it even took me a while to realize the obvious… that the ceiling has never been painted for more than 25 years.

It is clear that some thing needs to be done about the school. A school which has given so much to so many should not be abandoned to rot. This school, which has produced so many successful people including a prime minister, doctors, professors, engineers, leaders, managers etc, should not be left to chance. Therefore I strongly support the recent activities in Ethiopia and the USA to reenergize and restructure the Queen Sheba Alumni association. If the association can be organized and run in an effective fashion, there is a lot of potential in Ethiopia and Diaspora which can be tapped into for the benefit of the school. I personally will do whatever I can to support this endeavor.

Queen of Sheba Alumni