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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 2014)
Local News Portland’s Financial Fair: get on Solid Fiscal ground W hile the sun is blaring and skies are blue in those glorious months of Portland summer, it’s important not to forget about the future. The near future when kids may be returning to school or a bit further down the line, when energy bills are higher and the holidays are nearing. Or, even longer term, when you or someone in your family wants to get a walking distance from the Gateway/99th Ave Transit Center and Max Stop Workshop Schedule: 10:15-11:00 am – Banking made easy 11:15 -12:00 pm – Paying for school-student loans and financial aid 12:15-1:00 pm – All about credit 1:15-2:00 pm – Credit Builder Loan Orienta- tion 2:15- 3:00 pm – Budgeting for the school year and beyond At this free Financial Fair on Saturday, Aug. 23, you can attend workshops, meet with a professional financial planner or sit down with a credit expert college degree, buy a home or retire. No matter how near or far these events may be, having a financial plan that incorporates all of your life goals is crucial. And, whether you are a goal-set- ter officianado or a novice, it can be helpful to have someone with experience to guide you through develop- ing a plan for realizing those goals. Enter: the Portland Financial Fair. At this day long free Financial Fair on Saturday, August 23rd from 10am- 3pm, you can attend workshops, meet with a pro- fessional financial planner or sit down with a credit expert to review your free credit report. In addition, there will be raffles for gift cards, refreshments, kid- friendly activities and access to other community resources. The Portland Financial Fairs are collaboration of community organizations and the Financial Planners Association intended to increase access to unbiased and trustworthy financial information. The events are held on a quarterly basis in different neighborhoods around Portland. This one will be held at the Immi- grant & Refugee Community Organization’s Africa House on 631 NE 102nd Avenue, Portland. Make this the time that you get in control of your finances and your financial future! When: Saturday, August 23rd, 2014, from 10am-3pm Where: IRCO African House, 631 NE 102nd Ave, Portland OR Public Transit: located ALL DAY – Meet with a credit expert to review your free annual credit report ALL DAY – Meet with a financial planner to make a plan that works for you! For more information about the Portland Financial Fairs visit: www.innova- tivechanges.org. This event is organized by: Bradley Angle, Depart- ment of Consumer and Business Services, Innova- tive Changes, Financial Planning Association of Oregon and SW Washing- ton, Metropolitan Family Service, REACH CDC, and IRCO. This event is funded in part with a grant from the Foundation for Financial Planning. PHOTO BY HELEN SILVIS By Talia Kahn-Kravis InnovativeChanges.org Franklin Student at Princeton Ahmed gedi, right, and his father Dawood Mohamed. By Helen Silvis Of The Skanner News F ranklin High School student Ahmed Gedi was one of just two Oregon high school stu- dents selected for the prestigious LEDA scholars program at Prince- ton University this summer. LEDA, short for Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, aims to help gifted students from low-income backgrounds attend top colleges and universities. “I definitely got a taste of college life,” Gedi says. “They wanted us to get experience writing the types of papers you write at college. And I ended up pulling three all-nighters to make sure I got my work done.” The entering senior spent seven weeks on the Princeton campus learning about colleges, financial aid, and academic research and writing. Classes lasted 5 hours, and the students were expected to be up by 6 a.m. “They told us it would be a rigor- ous workload and it really was,” Gedi says. “We had 100-page read- ings some nights and we had to write 1,200-word essays. I feel this program really helped me get ready to go.” Still despite the boot camp atmos- phere, he says, the group had fun and bonded. “I made 60 of the best friends I’ve ever had, this summer,” he says. Originally from Somalia, Gedi’s Ella’s Kitchen formerly Soup & Soap SOUL FOOD ...one taste will bring you back. BREAKFAST • LUNCH SPECIALS DINNER • SEAFOOD • DESSERT “Finally!! I found a great cozy soul food spot in Portland” “Something about Ella’s catfish is magical” “The mac and cheese was real mac and cheese like momma used to (or should’ve made)” parents fled the war zone in the 1990s and applied to the United Nations for refugee resettlement from Damascus, Syria. “We had a life, businesses and restaurants in Somalia,” says Gedi’s father Dawood Mohamed. “But when the war started everything was destroyed. We ran away because we didn’t want to be killed.” Ahmed was born in Damascus in 1996, the family’s second child after his elder sister Mako. Then in 2000 they learned they had been accepted for resettlement in Port- land. “We were lucky; we got Ameri- ca,” Ahmed says. “And my parents always told me, ‘You can go a long way with education in America.’” In Portland, Gedi’s father worked in a warehouse before getting a job as a taxi driver, his current position. biggest supporter, Gedi says. Sister Mako, now 20, also worked hard in school and won a Gates Millenium scholarship in 2012. Mako is a pre- med student in her junior year at Lewis & Clark College. Gedi says he still speaks Somali fluently because the family speak it at home. But he’s also fluent in the computer languages, html, css and python. He credits the MESA (Maths, Engineering and Science Achievement) program for igniting his interest in computer science and helping propel him toward a career in computing. Gedi started studying robotics through the MESA program, when he was a middle school student. “They taught us about coding,” he says. “I thought that was really cool and I started studying computer sci- ence on my own time.” In his sophomore year at Franklin High School, Gedi and his science partner Dustin Diep entered a digi- tal design competition. They decided to make a musical hat, so they cut some holes for speakers , rigged up a control for an mp3 play- er hidden inside the hat. Then they loaded up a collection of songs including: Twist and Shout; My Generation; and the then-current hit Gangnam Style. “ I thought this is so awesome that you can do this with code,” he says. At high school the awards kept coming. Gedi and Franklin’s MESA club entered the 2012-13 MESA Day competition. They made a prosthetic arm, which came in sec- ond in the toss challenge, and first overall. Gedi coordinates student techni- cal activities at Franklin and also volunteers at Providence Portland Medical Center one day a week. Gedi says several Oregon schools are among the 20 schools on his list. “I want to be a software develop- er,” he says. “I know careers in that field are expanding, and I just want to see how far I can go with this. If it involves computers or coding, I am happy.” Does your snoring wake you up at night? Do you wake up tired in the morning? Do you wake up in the middle of the night? Do you have problems with attention and focusing? 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