Shereen drew upon her first days as a tutor at SEI, when she realized that some new students could recite the SEI Standards, but couldn’t read them. She told the board that many of her peers were preoccupied when they came to school, “If home is your foundation, and it’s not a stable place, then academics don’t apply because you’re only thinking about survival.”

Thanks to a strong family and the early support of SEI, Shereen never had the worries of her peers. She excelled in the academic enrichment of SEI’s after-school programs and skipped fifth grade to eventually become Valedictorian at Jefferson and earn a full scholarship to George Fox University. SEI constantly reinforced her, “I realized that I could choose my own path. I never wanted to settle for less.”