Building on her parents’ example and her Good Counsel experiences, Mahelet Abraham hopes to impact society as a software engineer
When Mahelet Abraham looks for role models, she doesn’t have to look far. The graduating senior in the class of 2024 at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland, said her mom and dad, Ethiopian immigrants Hayat Kedir and Abraham Lemenhe, “are definitely the two people I look up to the most.”
“I’ve learned perseverance (from them),” said Abraham, a first-generation Ethiopian American who was born at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. She noted that her parents “came from another continent, speaking another language, Amharic… basically they started from nothing,” when they immigrated to the United States, she said, adding, “They came from a loving, amazing family.”
Her mother has a daycare business, and her father works as an accountant. She has a younger sister, Betania Abraham, who is a sophomore at Our Lady of Good Counsel.