詹妮弗·k·森田著

2023年5月5日

Aylaliya Assefa Birru说她很感激，乍一看，她似乎有理由这样做。

Birru, who graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology in December, is a 2023 President's Medal of Honor recipient. Birru is also the recipient of the 2022-23 Dean’s Award for the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies (SSIS).

The President’s Medal of Honor is given to the University’s top graduate, and this year President Robert S. Nelsen selected two recipients. Deans’ Awards are given annually at Commencement to seven outstanding graduating students, one for each of 囊状态’s academic colleges. 

Birru还获得了1000美元的Mayada Al-Qazzaz杰出成就奖，她说她想成为一名移民律师，为弱势群体服务。 然而，她的未来是不确定的。

“I’m very content with where I am now. I’m very grateful, because I didn’t see any of this for myself, considering the darkness I was in.” -- Aylaliya Assefa Birru, President's Award and SSIS Dean's Award recipient

2015年，Birru被判犯有重罪，在州监狱服刑四年，并可能被驱逐回埃塞俄比亚。

“Against all odds, Aylaliya has turned difficult and painful life experiences into a passion for learning and for helping others,” Nelsen said. “As a Project Rebound Scholar, she is an inspiration for us all, and I am so proud that she is a member of the Hornet Family.” 

39岁的Birru在15岁时与母亲和妹妹一起逃离埃塞俄比亚。 她出生的国家与邻国厄立特里亚处于战争状态，如果他们留下来，Birru和她的妹妹可能会被迫战斗。

她在洛杉矶定居，就读于卡尔弗城高中（Culver City High School），但在2009年母亲生病后返回埃塞俄比亚。 在那里，她遇到并嫁给了一名美国海军陆战队员。

“That’s the darkest part of my life,” Birru said.

她说，在和丈夫一起去罗斯维尔的几周内，他们的关系变得更糟了。

“In an attempt to defend myself against him, I ended up hurting him and ended up in prison,” said Birru.

She was convicted of felony assault for shooting and wounding her now ex-husband and sent to Folsom Women’s Facility.

尽管Birru说她相信自己完成了高中毕业的必修课程，但她从未获得文凭或继续接受大学教育。

在福尔瑟姆的时候，Birru进入了太浩湖社区学院（Lake Tahoe Community College），每季度修六到七门课。 Birru’s drive to find a new direction was fueled by the words of a Placer County probation officer, who interviewed Birru before her sentencing.

“Her summary said that because the defendant is older and doesn’t really have any educational background, she is of no use to our society,” said Birru, who was 30 at the time. “Basically, she said I’m useless. … I carry that with me to this day.”

And, yet, Birru expressed appreciation for the probation officer’s statement.

“I am grateful for her words. Even though they were painful, it’s what I needed to hear at the time. I’m not that person. I’m not defined by that,” she said. “It was a lack of education and not having enough self-worth that got me in that predicament.”

After Birru earned an associate’s degree in Social Sciences, the prison warden gave her a pamphlet for Project Rebound, a program to help incarcerated people get a college education. “反弹计划”于1967年启动，在包括Sac州立大学在内的14个科罗拉多州立大学校区设有卫星。

“I started receiving mail from them really fast, and they were very supportive,” Birru said.

服刑四年后，Birru期待着被释放。 相反，她的绿卡被吊销，她被转移到美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）的拘留中心，在那里她被关押了一年多。

“It was terrible,” she said. “Prison is much better than ICE. The facility was a dungeon, not meant to be long term … but I had no choice, and I toughed it out.”

尽管如此，Birru说她很感激。

“It wasn’t a total waste, because I grew in my faith, which prepared me for all the things that were going to happen,” she said. “So, I’m grateful, regardless.”

Birru has appealed an immigration judge’s deportation order, and her case is making its way through the courts. 自2019年以来，她向州长加文·纽森（Gavin 新闻om）提出的赦免申请一直悬而未决。

“My best hope is that the governor and his office will really see who I was as a person before this case, and who I have been since,” Birru said.

与此同时，她进入了萨克州立大学（囊状态），那里的教师形容她热情、支持其他学生，并积极参与课堂讨论。

“She had so many different ways she could’ve gone, and she chose to channel it into her work for different organizations and being an excellent student,” said SSIS Dean Dianne Hyson. “ ... Even during Zoom times, when cameras were off, she’d be the one with her camera on asking questions.

“What struck us when we were looking at all the candidates was how she took this adversity and channeled it into positive things for other people.”

Birru现在是少年司法部门的一名导师，指导被监禁的年轻人利用他们的时间为上大学做准备。 她是奥克兰新呼吸基金会（New Breath Foundation）的顾问委员会成员，该基金会支持亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民移民和难民； 受监禁和驱逐影响的人； 以及暴力的幸存者。 

她还参与了“幸存与惩罚组织”，这是一个由志愿者运营的项目，旨在废除对虐待受害者的监禁判决。 她还担任全国联盟的行政协调员。

Birru说，她计划继续帮助边缘化和弱势社区的人们。

“I know there are many students deserving of this award,” Birru said. “I’m very content with where I am now. I’m very grateful, because I didn’t see any of this for myself, considering the darkness I was in.”