From the beginning of our graduate program, Sabra’s enthusiastic and warm-natured demeanor captured our attention. We were lucky enough to meet her for the first time during our Master of Public Health program orientation at the University of Washington, and our journey began there. Our friendship developed throughout our first quarter after we recognized a mutual respect for each other’s contributions to coursework and team projects. Sabra brings an extremely unique and valuable insight into the field of global health from significant clinical and professional experience, in addition to a truly global perspective from extensive world travel and life experiences.
While Sabra’s professional and academic influence is something to be admired, it is her loving, passionate, optimistic personality that solidified our friendship. The following series of photos represents the development of our friendship throughout our first year of graduate school.
Any sunny day in Seattle means taking a break from coursework and eating a nice lunch by the water. Our program building can be seen in the background, conveniently located adjacent to Lake Washington, where we spent many hours conversing and enjoying each other’s company. Lunches like these offered the opportunity to learn about each other and exchange stories of our respective upbringings and cultures.
Tasting Tunisian food that Sabra made naturally brought up stories of her home and life in Tunisia. Our conversations ranged from the types of food that we grew up eating and cooking, our friends and family and the values instilled in us from how we grew up that make us who we are today. We would also talk about what type of things people in their twenties do in Tunisia for fun as we planned weekend outings together, and we discussed local Seattle and Tunisian political atmospheres since there was much discussion as the election took place during the winter quarter.
In March 2017, the three of us (along with another friend who is also a Fulbright scholar) had the opportunity to spend our spring break in Denver, Colorado where we rented a mountain cabin and enjoyed three wonderful days unwinding from the stress of graduate school by cooking all sorts of tasty meals and going on a hike. As we are both from the State of Colorado, we were thrilled to show Sabra a part of our past lives before moving to Seattle and a way of life that is very typical of a small mountain town in the United States.
This photo was taken during one of several beautiful, relaxing summer days spent at Madrona Beach. This was Sabra’s very first time swimming in a lake, and we feel lucky to have been there to experience it with her. Sabra has enjoyed many other first experiences with us, including her first Halloween, eating Vietnamese food, the Washington State Fair, welcoming her first Tunisian guests to Seattle, and many more. We hope our next beach photo together can be taken at one of the many beautiful, sandy beaches in Sabra’s home country of Tunisia!
Our friendship has been deepened by our mutual love of traveling and experiencing new places, foods, and cultures. Due to this mutual passion, the three of us have engaged in extensive discussions of the culture of Sabra’s home country of Tunisia and the greater North Africa and Middle East region. Conversations like these have deepened our understanding of this region of the world and have allowed us to more greatly appreciate and share this understanding with other people in our lives. We believe cultural exchange like this is exemplary of the positive impact a program like Fulbright can have on our global world.
We feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know Sabra and learn alongside her; our lives have been inexplicably impacted for the better because of her presence. Her unwavering optimism and genuine love for life is like a ray of sunshine on a rainy Seattle day.
Merci and شكرا (shukran). Sabra, for being in our lives!
Love always,
Andrew & Rachael
Andrew and Rachel study public health with Sabra, a Fulbrighter from Tunisia, at the University of Washington.
