GORHAM – A student born in Pakistan and speaking little English arriving in the United States as a second-grade student has won an award from Gorham High School English teachers.

Farkhunda Jamal, along with the rest of the members of the class of 2012, receive high school diplomas at 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 10, in Gorham graduation exercises in Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

Jamal, called “Mina” by Gorham classmates, came to the United States with her family at age 7. Language was a problem. As a second-grader, “all I knew was how to say ‘hi’ and ‘thank you,’” Jamal said.

After staying five years with an aunt in Augusta, her family came to Gorham in 2006 and she entered seventh grade at Gorham Middle School. In the Gorham school system, English became her favorite subject.

“I do like writing stories,” Jamal said. “I love reading books.”

Jamal’s English teacher at Gorham High School, Deb Beckwith, said Jamal won the Plume Award from the school’s English Department for four years of diligence in English.

“She’s aced English this year,” Beckwith said. “She has worked so hard in writing skills.”

Beckwith said her student now speaks fluent English and has learned an academic English vocabulary. “She’s awesome,” Beckwith said.

Gorham High School Principal Chris Record said Jamal is “a wonderful student.”

Jamal, who easily smiles, is a 12th-grade honor student.

She has been accepted at the University of Southern Maine and intends to major in business.

She is the daughter of Laila and Asif Jamal, who fled to Pakistan from war in their Afghanistan homeland during the deployment of Russian troops there years ago.

In Afghanistan, her parents had been teachers.

They migrated to the United States from Pakistan. “My dad knew our lives there were not going to be great,” Jamal said.

Beckwith said Jamal’s father did a lot to get his family to the United States. Jamal praised her parents.

“They’re my heroes,” Jamal said.

During school vacation in February this year, Jamal visited family for the first time in Afghanistan.

Before continuing on to Kabul, Afghanistan, she first landed in Dubai, which proved to be a culture shock.

“I was freaking out,” Jamal said, describing people wearing traditional Arab garb.

During her visit, Jamal wore a long dress shirt, scarf and leggings.

“I had to go shopping quickly,” she said. “The life there (Afghanistan) is not easy, especially on women,” Jamal said.

She stayed with her father’s family, about a 30-minute drive from Kabul. She found life there a contrast to Gorham. In Afghanistan, she had about five minutes to take a shower with hot water and sometimes had to take a bucket bath.

“I missed everything here (Gorham),” she said.

February was cold in Afghanistan, too. Even indoors in a home there, she was wrapped in a jacket and mittens.

“It was so cold,” Jamal said. “You could see your breath.”

She said a typical cramped classroom in a nearby Afghanistan school might have 30 students and a teacher.

In shops, she saw armed, uniformed U.S. soldiers and talked with some, surprised she spoke English. “Every store, you saw the Army everywhere,” Jamal said. “They (soldiers) were nice people,” she said.

When Jamal returned to high school, she gave a PowerPoint presentation about her trip to the Gorham faculty.

Since entering Gorham High School as a shy freshman, Jamal has “blossomed,” Beckwith said. “She’s very determined.”

Beckwith said Jamal wants “a successful future not just for her, but for her family, as well.

For Jamal, graduation will be both sad and happy. “I’m happy because I made it through all these years,” Jamal said.

But sad, “because teenage years are the best of your life,” and because it’ll be hard saying goodbye.

Her family is readying for her graduation ceremony and 16 members will attend.

“They’ve got their cameras out,” she said.

“I’m happy because I made it through all these years,” says Farkhunda Jamal, who graduates Sunday from Gorham High School. Jamal was born in Pakistan. (Staff photo by Robert Lowell)