Mike Wolanin | The Republic Hanna Omar, center, poses for a photo with sisters Amelia, left, and Ericka Ramirez during the annual Great Girls, Wonderful Women event at Foundation for Youth in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. This was this first time the event was held in person since the start of the pandemic.
“It’s not easy to recognize that you’re the author of your own life. That’s a really big responsibility. But it is also full of possibility.”
These were the words of Skye Nicholson as co-emcee of Foundation For Youth’s annual “Great Girls, Wonderful Women” luncheon on Thursday. The occasion marked the banquet’s return to being in person after two years of going virtual amid the pandemic. The event was held at FFY’s Hope Avenue location and also livestreamed to schools so that students who could not attend were still able to watch.
The proceeds from the event, which is now in its eighth year, benefit the FFY Scholarship Fund and provide girls with the opportunity to participate in FFY programming even if registration fees pose a challenge to their families.
Nicholson, life coach at Souls’ Truth Coaching in Columbus, was co-emcee alongside Emily Wart, who is a sophomore in high school and FFY junior staff member. The two, along with keynote speaker Hanna Omar, encouraged audience members and young girls in particular to live out the event theme, which was “Write Your OWN Story.”
The event kicked off with a video message from Koryn Griewe, who recently graduated from Columbus East after breaking an all-time scoring record on the girls’ basketball team. Griewe discussed her own experiences and advice for young girls. She also touched on a recent setback she experienced.
“This summer, I was two weeks into my college basketball workouts when I injured my knee,” she said. “I tore my ACL, and the next week, I had surgery to repair it. In that moment, I could have given up. But I decided to take a different route. I started focusing on how I could come back even stronger. Being a great girl doesn’t mean you always have to be perfect. Being a great girl means that you can push through anything that comes in your way.”
Following the video, Wart and Nicholson spoke about their own experiences and what they’ve learned about writing their own stories — literally, in the case of Nicholson, who has self-published a memoir of poems called “Unexpected Alchemy.”
“I get to chose what my life experiences mean,” she said. “Poetry has helped me to take challenging or difficult experiences in my life and turn them into art — so like turning something ugly into something beautiful. I get to decide that I am not defined by the obstacles in my life but rather how I’ve responded to them.”
Wart is not sure what her future holds but said that she’s taking a cosmetology class and wants to be a make-up artist.
“It’s not the path most would go down,” she said. “It’s definitely not the most stable path. It’s what I want to do, though, and it’s what I’m passionate about.”
Wart advised her audience that it’s important to go after what you want, make your own decisions, ask for help, and take criticism with a grain of salt. She added that young girls shouldn’t feel like they need to start planning for their future careers right away and should take the time to enjoy being kids.
After a short creative exercise, audience members then heard from Omar, who works with the government banking group at JP Morgan Chase Bank and has been an advocate for the Muslim community.
She was born in the Bronx to immigrant parents who had little education and struggled amid financial obstacles, violence and crime in their community, overtaxed health systems, underfunded schools and racism. According to Omar, Bronx is the lowest-income area in New York, with dropout rates that are double compared to the rest of the state. While the Omars hoped to provide a better life for their children, society did not expect much from the kids in their community.
“And a young Arab, Muslim girl from the Bronx was definitely not supposed to do much with her life,” said Omar. “No one believed that we could finish school, go to college, have a career or make any kind of difference in our communities. There wasn’t really much of a precedent for it. Especially with everything around us systemically put in place to prevent our success.”
This left her with a choice — fall into the trap of other people’s expectations, or forge her own path. She chose to do the latter and said that she didn’t do it alone. She had the support of her mother, who was widowed young but worked to support Omar’s education despite the challenges before her.
“She knew, and often told us, ‘You can have everything taken away from you in this life, but as long as you had an education, you’d be all right,’” said Omar. “She always said, ‘That’s the one thing no one can take from you.’”
Omar became the first woman in her family to graduate from high school, finish college, and earn two master’s degrees. Still, she continued to face obstacles. Upon moving to Columbus in 2011, she was eager to become involved in the community. But when she set up a meeting with a female executive to discuss career opportunities and how she might fit into the area, the woman took one look at Omar and told her she’d probably be better off staying in New York.
Once again, Omar felt she had a choice to make: whether to let this woman define her, or to define herself. She chose to do the latter and was able to find groups and individuals in the community who welcomed her and shared her values.
Since moving to Columbus, her achievements have included serving on the Columbus Board of Zoning Appeals for 10 years, becoming the first person in Columbus to take an oath on a Quran, and running for Bartholomew County Council in 2018, at which time she became the first Muslim woman in Indiana to run for an elected office.
She was also a 2021 recipient of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Leadership Award and has received the Benjamin “Mickey” King award for her efforts to make Columbus and Bartholomew County a more welcoming community from the Columbus Area Multi-Ethnic Organization.
“So much for going back to New York,” said Omar.
She ended up encouraging her audience to find people who support their stories and not to let failure keep them down.
“Young ladies, pick up your pens, start your journey, and continue writing a story that is authentically your own,” she said.
