رحمةالله
مسري ة
R A H M ATA L L A H ’ S
ROAD
Math teacher Hanan Rahmatallah recollects embarking on her journey becoming an educator and learning the English language. BY FAREEHA AHMAD
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hroughout high school, math teacher Hanan Rahmatallah was ambitious. She was involved in a diverse range of activities from singing to playing sports. She especially enjoyed the wonders of creating. Inspired by her siblings getting their doctorate in engineering, Rahmatallah made it a goal to become an engineer herself. Little did she know, she would use her creative skills differently. Growing up in Iraq, Rahmatallah experienced the tragedies of war, which particularly disrupted her senior year of high school. As a result, Rahmatallah fell behind on her schoolwork. Because the Iraqi college admissions system
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only takes into account scores students earn during their senior year, Rahmatallah knew she wouldn’t be able to pursue a career in engineering as she had initially hoped. Instead, Rahmatallah embarked on a journey to pursue a career in education, and this twist in fate sparked her path towards becoming a math teacher. “At the beginning, when I got to college, I said ‘Oh my goodness, this is not what I was hoping,’” Rahmatallah said. “But when I [think back to] elementary school, I loved to teach my peers ... I was always guiding my friends, leading them to what to do. Maybe because I loved to teach my peers, that was inside me … Maybe that was my destiny.” After graduating college, Rahmatallah married her partner and raised a family. Later, she decided it may be a good idea to move to the U.S.
While speaking with her brother, a professor at the University of Iowa, over the phone, she determined that Iowa would be a safe and quiet place to live. According to Rahmatallah, as much as she was excited to move, she was also very nervous. Although she wanted to live in Iowa City, Rahmatallah ended up in Des Moines first. Upon arriving to the U.S., she found that learning English was the most challenging transition despite being a passionate English language learner in Iraq. “Learning a new language is not easy,” Rahmatallah said. “I started to review my information and get back my knowledge about English, the grammar and everything. I was all the time listening, talking. I had CDs [that taught] English when I was cleaning the house.”