“I think I’m a customer service kind of girl. I love doing things, decorating, and making plans. Hospitality really speaks to me,” says GVP alum, Asma Ibrahim. Asma is currently interning at GVP while job hunting. She graduated from Atlanta Technical College in May 2023 with a degree in Hospitality and Hotels Management. She says her ideal job would be as a flight attendant.

Even though years have passed, Asma still recalls how she first came to Global Village Project. “My parents are from Somalia, but the way we came here is through Djibouti,” Asma recalls of her path to GVP. She remembers that her younger sister, Nasteho, set everything in motion. They were 13 and 14 years old at the time. She recalls that it all started with a conversation at the cafeteria of the school they were attending.

“My sister loves people, so she was more outgoing. She said we’ve got to go there. We can’t stay here (at our school) because we don’t understand anything and they expect us to know so much. She convinced my parents to let us go.”

The first few weeks were very nerve-wracking because they did not speak English. It was very hard to communicate. But Asma recalls that everyone was supportive. “They would speak slowly. They would make sentences shorter and they would help us with books and everything that we needed for the school. They made our parents feel comfortable and like their girls are being taken care of. My parents were so worried, especially my mom.” Asma attended GVP for two years before going on to high school. Asma graduated from GVP in 2016 and went on to North Druid High School. After that she went to Atlanta Tech.