PHOTO/Mark Howell

From left are Papia Yasmin, her daughters Anika and Atia and their father Muhammad Tarafder. Absent was their brother Ishtiaque Ahmed.

 

TSIC grad Anika Yasmin heading off to MIT

 

BY MARK HOWELL

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

All 37 of this year’s Monroe County winners of a Take Stock in Children scholarship have been accepted by the college of their choice. “We’re so proud of them,” said Leslie Holmes, the program coordinator.

One of those winners is Anika Yasmin, 18, of Key West High School. Her Take Stock mentor was Cali Roberts of WomanKind. Starting in the fall, Anika will be a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Anika’s brother is Ishtiaque Ahmed, 22, who graduated Key West High in 2009 and also won a Take Stock in Children scholarship. His mentor was the late David Kaufelt. Ishtiaque has just graduated with a double major in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the University of Central Florida.

Anika’s sister, Atia, was born in 2002 and is a fifth grader at Poinciana Elementary in Key West. Atia was born in Key West, but Anika, Ishtiaque and their parents all came to America in 1998 from the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Anika’s mother, Papia, suffered a stroke on Sept. 11 last year. Anika had already decided to study biomedical engineering at MIT, if she could, to develop the technology for reconnecting the nervous system with a brain damaged by a stroke. She was inspired to enter this field by the number of helpless stroke victims she’d encountered in visits to Bangladesh.

Anika’s father, Muhammad Tarafder, worked 15 hours a day on the night shift at Walgreen’s as the sole supporter of his family, since Papia is no longer able to work at Fausto’s and the Ice Cream Factory.

He is, Muhammad told us, very proud of his family.

The Yasmins initially came to Key West because there were a number of Bengali families already established here.

When she arrived, Anika spoke no English. Today she considers herself “basically an American.”

After practicing English with the Literacy Volunteers of America, she was enrolled at Reynolds school and the program known as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), where she fast-tracked through pre-K and kindergarten, then second grade and ultimately to the gifted class in third grade.

At Glynn Archer Elementary and then at Horace O’Bryant Middle School, she took as many advanced classes as she could and was able to skip two years of math in middle school, taking ninth grade algebra in seventh grade (“common now, but not then,” she notes). She was also able to skip ahead a year in science and in 10th grade skipped a year in English, moving straight to Advanced Placement Language.

Anika enjoyed her friends at school. “We’re still friends to this day,” she said. “They’re continuing to excel and they’ll get to great places. I’m proud of them.”

Two or three of her schoolmates were as new to the United States as she was. Anika says she never fell afoul of cliques or bullying and she was not called out for the way she dressed or behaved. She concluded lightheartedly that “we all did a bit better than they show high school on TV.”

At MIT, however, she thinks she might gear back on the fast track because she doesn’t want to miss out on the college experience.

Anika is not, however, really ready for New England’s winter weather. “I’ve only ever been to Bangladesh outside of Key West and I’ve never seen snow.”

Why MIT then?

“Because there are literally no barriers there,” she said, sounding quite specific about this. “Nothing will hold you back if you have enough drive at MIT. You can go overseas to get experience in any field and be of service.”

She and her family regularly return to Bangladesh and have traveled all over to visit family and friends.

“Life is good,” concluded Anika.

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