Meriem's Story
Meriem grew up in Northern Africa before coming to Minnesota through a scholarship to attend school. Living in student housing in Saint Paul, Meriem worked while she went to school part time as an International Relations major. She unexpectedly received an eviction notice that stated she could not maintain residency in her student housing due to a federal housing law. Despite filing for appeals, Meriem was not able to stay in her current housing and ended up at government housing for youth. Reflecting on her time spent there, she recalled how unkept and poorly run the building was. This drastic change forced her to put her education on hold while she prepared for a civil lawsuit to fight the eviction and continue with her studies. During this time, Meriem found Hired. Her counselor helped acquire the funding that Meriem needed for the rest of her school as well as get her exempt from the housing law that had caused her so many problems. She was also connected to other organizations through Hired and provided with resources like books, clothes, and food. With her counselor’s support, Meriem was able to move out of her current housing and resume her education, graduating from Augsburg University with a Bachelor’s degree.
Post graduation, Meriem decided to return to the government housing that she had lived in and used the resources that she had discovered at Hired to petition for the building to be improved. After collecting the signatures of the residents and getting the attention of all those involved with the construction and maintenance of the building, Meriem successfully transformed the building for the better with new management and a dedicated cleaning crew. Additionally, Meriem became a Board Member for advocates of human rights in MN, providing free legal help for refugees and asylum seekers and worked with MyPlace/YouthPlace, a Mankato-based after school program focusing on the betterment of low-income families.
When asked what Meriem thought her life would have been like if she had not found Hired, she responded that she would not have been able to go to school full time and would not have been able to face homelessness. Without her education, Meriem said that she would have felt like she had no purpose in life and succumbed to the hopelessness that she faced while living in government housing. Furthermore, Meriem would not have been able to continue to help those in her community. “By supporting one single person, Hired has helped so many others.”
Meriem plans to move to Mankato where she will serve as a member of AmeriCorps for a year before she goes back to school to get her PHD in Public Policy. She hopes to continue the legacy that Hired has provided her with and pay it forward.
“I want to make sure that I’m not the only success story.”
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