Suheib Mohamed making a successful run at Savannah State

To say Suheib Mohamed has come a long way is putting it mildly. And in many ways his journey is just beginning.

Mohamed is a distance runner at Savannah State University who has experienced more in his 20 years than many people will in a lifetime.

The Tigers’ track and field roster says Mohamed is from Clarkston, Georgia, which is true. But Clarkston is just the landing spot for a young man born in Kenya to parents from Somalia.

With today’s restrictions on immigration there is a good chance Mohamed, who is a United States citizen along with the rest of his family, would not be in the country.

His parents left Somalia for Kenya due to the dangers of living in that country during a brutal civil war. Two years after Mohamed’s birth, his father came to America and settled in Clarkston, which is considered to be the most diverse town in Georgia.

“I met him (father) for the first time when he came back for a visit in 2009,” Mohamed said in a recent interview on the SSU campus, before the announcement Thursday night, March 12, that the university was canceling spring sports in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “I was 2 when he left and I didn’t know him at all. I had no memory of him.”

At age 11, Mohamed came to the United States in pursuit of a better education and job opportunities which would enable him to make money to help his family.

Current census data shows that 44% of Clarkston’s residents are foreign born. Approximately 50 countries are represented in the town of 7,600 and they speak 40 languages.

The attraction of the DeKalb County city --- often referred to as the Ellis Island of the South -- is its affordable housing and access to public transit, which makes it an excellent location for incoming families who are placed there by refugee resettlement programs.

“Walking down the hall at school was like being at the United Nations,” Mohamed said. “I speak five languages. The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was learning English.”

Mohamed now speaks English extremely well and is on track to get his degree in electrical engineering next year.