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Five siblings from the Jabro family of Windsor recently celebrated a unique milestone — graduating together on the same day.
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After immigrating to Windsor from Iraq just over three years ago, they soon after decided to enrol together at St. Michael’s adult education school.
The siblings, ranging in age from 21 to 34, first took English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for nearly a year, before moving into regular classes at the adult high school.
Last Thursday, four sisters — Anjil, Chrestina, Tirezya and Rita — plus one brother Amanual, joyously celebrated the unique experience of graduating from the school all together on the same day.
“It’s really special,” said Anjil Jabro, the youngest of the siblings. “For the whole family it’s a big moment for us to be graduating at the same time. We shared a lot of experiences together studying at St. Michael’s. We gave support to each other all of the time. We are very proud of this moment.”
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Another sibling, Maria, also graduated from the school a year ago.
They have a love of learning, that’s for sure.
A couple of the older siblings actually completed university in Iraq, but the family, as part of their fresh start in Canada, felt the best route was to gain a new education here. That’s why they decided to enrol together at St. Michael’s.
“We are starting a new life here,” Anjil said. “We came here and had to learn a new language and culture. We felt this was best way to integrate with society. We were feeling a good choice would be to start at the high school. St Michael’s knew what to teach us and the curriculum was appropriate for us.
“Two of my sisters finished university, but getting the Canadian diploma for high school will help us to get better jobs.”
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With their education at St. Michael’s completed, some in the family plan to enter the workforce, while Anjil said she plans to enrol next semester at the University of Windsor and focus on the sciences with hopes to one day to become a dentist.
St. Michael’s teacher Judge Brisson said the Jabro family was often the topic of conversation among staff at the high school, not only for the unique fact they were attending school together, but also for their work ethic and memorable personalities as students.
“Myself, I only taught two of them in my co-op class,” Brisson said. “The family’s story was talked about by teachers at the school. They are outgoing, cordial and very teachable. They have a love of learning, that’s for sure.
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“Generally, all teachers who taught these students had great experiences with them and they performed well academically.”
The siblings truly enjoyed the school’s variety of classes which included taking English, science and Canadian history, Anjil said.
“At first it was difficult because we were new and the language barriers,” she said. “We were tying hard to communicate with the teachers. But they gave a lot of support to us to help make it easier.
“As time passed we started to learn a lot and it was easier to communicate with others. We had an enjoyable high school experience — not only learning the language, but learned a lot about Canada, the history and culture.
“We are very proud to be here in Canada and learning in school,” said Anjil. “We are very thankful to the teachers who gave us so much support and proud to have a Canadian diploma.”
Five siblings celebrate unique day of graduating together - Windsor Star
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