When Mahelet Abraham looks for role models, she doesn’t have to look far. The graduating senior in the class of 2024 at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland, said her mom and dad, Ethiopian immigrants Hayat Kedir and Abraham Lemenhe, “are definitely the two people I look up to the most.”
“I’ve learned perseverance (from them),” said Abraham, a first-generation Ethiopian American who was born at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. She noted that her parents “came from another continent, speaking another language, Amharic… basically they started from nothing,” when they immigrated to the United States, she said, adding, “They came from a loving, amazing family.”
Her mother has a daycare business, and her father works as an accountant. She has a younger sister, Betania Abraham, who is a sophomore at Our Lady of Good Counsel.
“From my mom, I learned strength. From my dad, I learned compassion,” Mahelet Abraham said. “My mom is a very strong, independent woman, a role model for my life. My dad is compassionate, looking after my sister and me.”
While a student at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Mahelet Abraham has volunteered with a non-profit organization called Habesha Kids Club, tutoring young Ethiopian American children in subjects like math, reading and science that they are struggling in.
“That’s really important to me,” said Abraham, who noted that she is the oldest in the generation of her family in the United States and has assisted her cousins with their schoolwork. When she graduated from Our Lady of Good Counsel on May 23, she became the first member of both sides of her family to graduate from an American high school.
Tutoring the Ethiopian children means a lot to her, she said. “I see myself in them… as someone older they can look up to. To be that role model means so much to me. It’s a full circle moment.”
At Our Lady of Good Counsel, Abraham also worked toward a diploma in the International Baccalaureate program and was a member of the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society. This fall, she will be attending George Washington University in the nation’s capital, where she plans to major in computer science, an interest that was sparked by engineering classes that she took during her junior year at Good Counsel.
“Two things I’m very passionate about are technology and how it affects society, and how I can play a role in making a positive impact in society,” Abraham said.
In one internship during her high school years, she worked with a team of students to design a financial literacy app that would help lower income families budget their money.
Abraham hopes to become a software engineer and perhaps work in a software company and help make sure “what’s produced is ethical and inclusive for all people.”
Also at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Abraham was a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leader and interned in that office at her high school this past summer. She co-founded a student group called H.E.R. Space to unite the Black women of Good Counsel. “We wanted to have a safe space to build relationships and friendships with each other, almost like a sorority,” with big sister and little sister relationships among older students and younger students, she said.
In all four years at Good Counsel, Abraham participated in the school’s speech and debate team, and she also participated in national competitions. “Speech taught me a lot about how to build my confidence and public speaking skills,” said Abraham, who also sang in her school’s choir.
Abraham, who is a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, was a campus ministry leader and helped lead retreats at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, which is sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers. “I like creating connections with people who are a different faith from me,” she said.
One of her most impactful experiences at her Catholic high school was joining a group of students, teachers and school administrators in an eight-day service trip to a rural part of El Salvador this past January, where they worked on houses for poor people. She noted how the families there were welcoming and kind to them. That experience, she said, taught her to “be present, be in the moment, be happy for the little things in life… They did so much for us, even though we were there to help them.”
Interviewed a few weeks before her graduation from Our Lady of Good Counsel, Abraham said, “I’m reminiscing on everything. I feel like Good Counsel has prepared me so much for the real world. I’m at a point where I feel ready and prepared.”
