South Plympton high achiever overcomes adversity

When Maram Salim arrived in Adelaide after fleeing the terrors of Palestine in 2023, her dreams of becoming a doctor never wavered.

The 20-year-old launched into a 6-month English course to become proficient enough to start Year 12 at IQRA College in 2024.

She had already overcome so much adversity, but her biggest challenge came when she suffered the heartbreaking loss of her 17-year-old sister to bone cancer.

Despite the tragedy, 3 weeks later, Maram would sit her exams.

"It was really hard, I just didn't have much time to grieve," she said.

"I expected it to affect me and thought I was probably capable of doing better in those final exams."

Amid all the tragedy and sadness, there was a sense of relief for Maram when her results rolled in a month later.

She received an ATAR score of 99.75.

"My sister was so motivated and loved to study," she said.

"So she would have been so happy for me to push through it all and achieve such a high score."

But Maram also paid tribute to her teachers at IQRA College who guided her every step of the way.

"Learning basic English was tricky and very frustrating in the beginning," she said.

"But I had very skilled and smart teachers, they gave me all the tools to assist me with how to study and how to plan for the year ahead."

With school now finished, Maram is still tapping into her inspirational sister to guide her future endeavours.

“She is the reason I want to do medicine,” she said.

“I want to contribute to the cancer community. We’ve lost our sister, but maybe other children I can give hope.”

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