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.”
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August 20, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9