This soon-to-be Philly high school grad, a recent English language learner, fled Syria when he was 5. He just won a full ride to Drexel.

Abduljaleel Shoufan was 5 when his family fled Syria — too young, his parents thought, to remember much of the danger they escaped.

“I remember everything,” he said of Syria’s civil war. “Everyone was getting killed. We either had to risk it to leave, or risk it to stay.”

Twelve years later, more than 5,000 miles away, Shoufan is the realization of his family’s wildest dreams: The senior at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber has won a full scholarship to Drexel University, singled out for his drive and his commitment to social justice: He wants to study civil engineering so he can help rebuild Syria someday.

“My dad and my mom went through hell to get me to this point,” Shoufan said. “I want to make them proud.”

The journey out of Syria was perilous, Shoufan said — it wasn’t a given that his family would survive. But they made it to Jordan and, they hoped, a better life.

But struggles remained. Shoufan said he was judged because he was Syrian. He always did well in school, especially in math, but teachers would question him: Did you really do this work yourself?

“I would get beat up because of where I was from,” said Shoufan. “I would go home and cry to my parents.”

The ultimate goal was reaching the United States, Shoufan said, and after many interviews with government officials, his father came home one day when Shoufan was studying for midterms and announced: “We fly to America tomorrow.”

Life in Philadelphia was a sea change, Shoufan said. The family arrived knowing no English in the middle of the 2016-17 school year; Shoufan, then 10, was placed in the fifth grade at Solis-Cohen Elementary in the Northeast.

“I didn’t understand what anyone was saying; I was lost,” said Shoufan. But it felt different — no one picked on him for being Syrian, he said.

Still, the U.S. was an adjustment; in his first two years of middle school, at Woodrow Wilson — now Castor Gardens — “I had bad grades,” Shoufan said. “I wasn’t doing great, I didn’t understand the system.”

But in eighth grade, something clicked. He felt more confident, and was determined to master the system, the language.

Shoufan was admitted to SLA Beeber, a project-based magnet, for high school, and was excited to go, even though its West Philadelphia location meant a nearly two-hour commute one way by buses and train.

“Here,” Shoufan said, “I got experience that I wouldn’t get in any other school.”

Though Shoufan loved SLA Beeber from the beginning, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Ninth grade was fully remote because of the pandemic, and that was tough. And in 11th grade, Shoufan fell into a depression.

His father “works all the time” as an Uber driver and convenience store clerk to support not just Shoufan, his younger brother and mother, but also family in Turkey and Syria. His mother and father both had health issues, and a beloved uncle died. Shoufan believed that he had to work to help bring in income for his family, but he didn’t get home from school until 6 p.m. and “Nobody’s hiring me at that time.” His grades slipped; so did his confidence. He wasn’t sure he could go to college.

Shoufan got through, he said, with the aid of his teachers, who helped him academically and personally. He had applied for retail jobs and got rejected, but SLA Beeber staff helped get him a summer job at Fox Chase Farm.

“They would help me through my schoolwork, they would comfort me,” Shoufan said of his teachers. “That’s what I love about this school and the whole U.S. There’s always people to help you when you’re struggling.”

Max Lawrence, who teaches engineering at SLA Beeber, saw something special in Shoufan the moment he met him. Shoufan was still classified as an English language learner in the ninth grade and, “I see the EL kids as some of our most untapped possibilities,” Lawrence said. “To me, there’s a sense of urgency to them and their families to get a foothold here. That English hurdle is the only thing.”

Shoufan, Lawrence said, “was precocious and plucky, and wasn’t going to be bullied, and he had a sense of humor.”

Lawrence and Alison Pironti, the SLA Beeber teacher who supports English learners, “were my biggest support in school, with everything,” Shoufan said.

With his teachers’ guidance, the young man who wasn’t sure he could even get to college, whose English was not considered proficient when he started high school, won big-ticket scholarships to Holy Family, Temple, Jefferson and Widener Universities. But the day Shoufan found out he was named a Drexel Liberty Scholar — a prize that covers 100% of tuition and fees and is given to just 65 students nationwide — he got off the bus and went into school to hug Lawrence as tightly as he’s ever hugged anyone.

“It’s like hitting the lottery,” Lawrence said of Shoufan’s earning the Drexel award, given to students who show a commitment to social justice and have barriers to higher education.

Shoufan, who is thrilled at the idea of Drexel’s co-op program, plans to major in civil engineering. It’s an easy choice for a math whiz who watched his country crumble around him.

“When I left Syria, I thought, ‘One day, I’m going to come back and build these houses again,’” Shoufan said. “I’m going to help all these people. It was really sad and really hard for my family, but I want to remember where I came from.”

Explaining what the Liberty scholarship meant to his family was a moment he’ll never forget, Shoufan said.

“They said, ‘We got what we want,’” Shoufan. “‘That’s why we came here.’”