Abel Berhan is headed to Harvard Graduate School of Education
By Catherine Carbone Rogers for Runta News
Burien, Wash. – Remember when the Harvard acceptance of a high school senior from White Center went viral? Well, after returning home with his Ivy League bachelor’s degree, Abel Berhan is going back to Cambridge to pursue a master’s at the esteemed Harvard Graduate School of Education. Abel graduated from Evergreen High School in 2018. In 2022, he graduated from Harvard with honors, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in ethnicity, migration and rights.
Since then, Abel has been working in Highline Public Schools, supporting about 100 students at Evergreen and Tyee high schools as a Promise Scholar Specialist. Abel facilitates workshops on topics ranging from racial identity to financial literacy and facilitates career exploratory field trips, study halls and one-on-one check-ins to help students access post-secondary education.
“This year gave me the taste I was itching for in education,” says Abel. “Working with the Promise Scholars program, I have had the opportunity to start a program from the ground up, design curricula, and develop meaningful relationships with both students and staff. It has been extremely rewarding.”
While at Harvard, Abel will work as a part-time teacher at a high school in Boston. He will leave the program with a teaching license. He aims to become a history teacher, a spark that was lit in his Contemporary Global Issues course at Evergreen High School.
“By examining global issues like poverty, incarceration, and environmental hazards, for the first time in my life, I had been given a framework to understand many of the issues seeping into my own communities and life. The course left me with questions and issues I had an undying passion to explore,” says Abel.
Abel says after he completes his master’s degree, he would like to return to Highline as a teacher. “Abel’s firsthand experience attending Highline schools and growing up in our community has been instrumental in shaping our work,” says Sativah Jones, assistant director of college and career readiness. “His insights as an alumnus have enabled us to engage with our community, ensuring that our program truly addresses the needs and aspirations of our students.”
