Sufian Halo is about to start university after surviving unimaginable horrors fleeing attempted genocide of the Ezidi people in Northern Iraq.
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The 21-year-old was recently accepted to study a bachelor of science at the University of New England, with dreams of becoming a maths teacher at Armidale Secondary College.
And it was at Armidale Secondary College where the-then 17-year-old began his education in Australia shortly after arriving from Iraq in 2019.
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He studied biology, maths, English and later dropped Arabic in year 12, while simultaneously taking on a nursing course at TAFE.
After finishing high school, the bright youngster began working as an in-class teacher's aide, translating complex texts and lectures for Ezidi students at the Armidale Secondary College.
He initially wanted to study teaching at university, but fell short of the required International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score by a mere 0.5 points.
So, with a letter from the Armidale Secondary College and an impressive academic record, he breezed into the local university on the hill and scored a place in a three-year bachelor of science degree program.
He is the first in his family, and one of the first among the Ezidi community in Armidale to do so.
"I felt excited about being at the university and studying but I was also feeling sad because if I study full time, I'll have to leave my job here [at Armidale Secondary College]," Sufian said.
But it has been a long journey for Sufian to get to this point.
A harrowing journey
An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Ezidi people were murdered in an attempted genocide by ISIS in a reign of terror that began in the Sinjar province of Northern Iraq on August 3, 2014.
An approximate 6,000 others were kidnapped, mainly women and children who were on-sold as slaves and subject to repeated rapes, torture and abuse, with boys as young as seven forced into military service.
Sufian, his mother and father, two older sisters and younger brother were lucky to escape, surviving ten nights with very little food, water, shelter and spare clothes as ISIS terrorists surrounded thousands of Ezidis on Mount Sinjar.
Eventually, Sufian and his family managed to walk for days to a Christian Camp located on the border of Syria and Iraq, where they lived for about five years before being accepted as refugees to Australia.
At the border camp, a then-13-year-old Sufian and his siblings attended school, walking seven kilometers each way to sit in crowded classrooms that sweltered hot in the summers and practically froze during winters.
"When it was raining we wouldn't be able to go to school because we would have to walk in the rain," Sufian said.
Shortly after arriving in Australia in 2019, Sufian started attending Armidale Secondary College where he later found inspiration in the form of maths and English teachers Renee Thomas and Rebecca Tarrant.
They were "lovely people" who always had energy and motivation and passion for their jobs, Sufian said.
"And that is what gets me excited about becoming a teacher.
"I want to be just like them."
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