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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
Orlaith Clinton

Refugee graduates from QUB after arriving to the UK with no English

United Kingdom Refugee Access Queen University

A Syrian refugee who graduated on Monday with a First Class Honours has described her journey as the “impossible dream”.

Shefaa Al Deek, arrived in the UK just seven years ago and was not able to speak one sentence in English. Despite this, her dream was to become a Software Engineer and since 2016, Shefaa has taught herself English, completed Maths and English courses, an Access course and sat the IELTS (an English language test) test in order to try and achieve her goal.

In September 2019, Shefaa was accepted to Queen’s University and began studying Software Engineering. And on Monday, July 3, Shefaa stood proud as she accepted her degree. She now plans to continue studied at Queen’s and will soon begin a course in MSc Artificial Intelligence.

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