When Mukhtar Abdulkhaleiq started high school, he didn’t think college would be “his thing.” He wasn’t afraid of hard work—he just thought of it as an expensive decision.
“I heard ‘college,’ and I thought ‘debt,’” says Mukhtar, who didn’t want to put that burden on his parents. “They risked their lives to provide the opportunity to make something vibrant out of our lives.”
When Mukhtar was seven, his family moved from Baghdad, Iraq, to Syria to escape fears of war and violence. But the refuge was short-lived, and soon they were on the move again. The family sought peace and safety in Vermont.
When Mukhtar arrived in the United States, he didn’t know a word of English. But he didn’t want to rely on anyone for assistance—especially his parents, who were working so hard. His mother was raising five children in a foreign land. And his dad was working different jobs to provide for his family.
Mukhtar’s independent streak motivated him to become “somewhat fluent” in English in six months. His school paired him with a translator, and soon he was reading for hours every day. “My sister and I started this little bookshelf that we filled with any books that we could get our hands on.”
By high school, Mukhtar was thriving. He felt at home in the diverse community at Winooski High School and felt free to express his faith and culture. “It can be pretty overwhelming to be part of a new culture that is completely different than everything you’ve known. The fact that I landed in a small community like Winooski was a blessing,” he said.
Mukhtar was a hardworking student and played the right-back position on the varsity soccer team. Still, he didn’t think college was in his future.
A different perspective
Liam Danaher, a VSAC outreach counselor, visited Winooski High School several times a week. “He’d sit in the library and be available for questions,” Mukhtar says. “And this guy was super cool and knowledgeable. So I just started talking to him.”
Liam steered the conversation with Mukhtar toward college resources and introduced different options for paying for school. “By my junior year, I had completely changed my stance on what I was going to do after high school,” Mukhtar says. “I became certain that I was going to college and hopeful that I could afford it.”
With federal aid, scholarships, a VSAC grant, and hard work, Mukhtar realized he could attend college—and possibly even graduate debt-free.
“Liam was instrumental in shaping that point of view for me and for so many others in our school district. He showed us that it was possible to get the good things out of life without the expensive price tag. His work helped level the playing field for members of diverse communities in Vermont,” Mukhtar says.
College-bound
Mukhtar attended Champlain College for his freshman year, then transferred into the business program at the University of Vermont. There, he majored in business administration with a concentration in finance.
While in school, he stuck to a strict budget and meal plan to save money. He worked as a delivery driver and a restaurant server to help cover expenses—balancing 8-hour workdays with a full class load to avoid going into debt.
Mukhtar earned his taxi license during his junior year and started helping his older brothers with their business, Burlington Taxi Service. At first, he drove late-night airport shifts. Then, he started offering his brothers business ideas.
Based on word-of-mouth and good reviews, the taxi company had grown from “an idea that started in our living room” to a state-wide enterprise with multiple drivers. But Mukhtar saw bigger opportunities, thanks to his business classes. He helped his brothers update their website, set up meetings, and secure contracts with resorts.
Mukhtar also completed several internships, one of which was running a seasonal house painting business. “I ran sales, put together contracts, and went out knocking on doors on cold winter days. Most painting companies don’t advertise until the snow melts, but I wanted to be ahead of the competition,” he says.
The hard work paid off, and he closed nearly $80K in sales one summer. “That showed me I had a future in sales,” he says. “I enjoyed it, and I was good at it.”
Hard work pays off
As graduation neared, Mukhtar was anxious. Instead of celebrating what he accomplished, he was worrying about what came next: a job. And he didn’t have one yet.
Then, two days before the May ceremony, Mukhtar was offered a sales position with National Life Group. “It felt surreal knowing that all that hard work finally paid off,” he says.
Today, the 23-year-old is an internal sales associate and helps National Life Group’s agents with complex policies. He’s also working toward another goal: becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst. He spends most of his free time studying for the rigorous exam. Longer-term, he wants to go to law school.
“With all good things that come in life, there will be a lot of sacrifices,” he says. “Hopefully, the hard work will propel my way up in the finance world. If it does, I’ll take those sacrifices.”
Mukhtar says he respects and appreciates VSAC for investing in diverse communities and motivating people to pursue college. He’s grateful Liam asked and answered the “big questions” that helped him get to where he is today.
This story is produced by Vermont Student Assistance Corp., created by the Vermont Legislature in 1965 as a public nonprofit agency, to advocate for Vermont students and their families to ensure that they achieve their education goals. Our vision is to create opportunities for all Vermont students, but particularly for those—of any age—who believe that the doors to higher education are closed to them. We begin by helping families save for education with Vermont’s state-sponsored 529 savings program. To help Vermonters plan and pay for college or career training, our counselors work with students in nearly every Vermont middle school and high school, and again as adults. Our grant and scholarship programs attract national recognition, and our loan programs and loan forgiveness programs are saving Vermont families thousands of dollars in interest. Visit vsac.org to learn more.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Mukhtar Abdulkhaleiq didn’t think college was possible for him—until he met staff from VSAC.