Name: Natan Hadgu
High School: McDaniel High School
Dream Career: Accountant
Song on Repeat: Dwelling Place by Joel Ansett
Hobbies: I like reading fantasy and dystopian novels and learning about sound mixing.
Who are you outside of school?
I grew up in Eritrea, Africa and lived there until I was 13 years old. It was really amazing to be a part of my family and community there. I learned all my values from them. There’s a lot of honoring your family, past, education and community, so that’s the base of who I am. Once I came to the US, my goals shifted because my parents brought us here for a better education as a path forward. As the eldest brother, I began learning English, taking care of my brothers, and working to help my parents out financially. All those Eritrean values I carried began to flourish in America. Moving was a difficult shift for my family too because it’s a different language and society. Our parents left the place they grew up to take us on a journey thousands of miles away, so we can have a better future, and that’s a great sacrifice. I’ve been trying to honor that as much as I can.
How’s your senior year going?
It’s way busier than junior year, which I didn’t expect, but it’s going great. I’ve had a lot of happy moments with scholarships. Yesterday, I got great news that I was awarded the Ford Scholarship, which includes a renewable financial award of up to $40,000 per year. My coach helped me a lot with my college and scholarship essays. Especially this year, College Possible has given me access to the feedback that I didn’t have. My parents can’t give me feedback on my essays that I write because they have a really hard time with English. I remember giving my coach like 10 different essays in one document about different things and they gave me feedback in one week! My coach helped my story pop out a bit more and that’s how I also won the Renaissance Scholarship, which I really appreciate.
Why do you want to be an accountant and what impact do you hope to have in that field?
During my junior year, I took macroeconomics, and it was really interesting. I was really impressed. From then on, I wanted to learn more about the economy. In my free time, I watched videos and looked into different career paths I could take. By doing research and talking to accountants, I learned that accounting is called the language of business because you can work in many other financial fields, so it seems promising. While I want to focus on accounting, I also want to make it as accessible as possible for me to pursue other futures I might have. For example, I want to focus on healthcare. My mom works in home care and she wants to create her own home healthcare business. Maybe one day I can help with that by going into a health-adjacent financial field. At George Fox, they’re starting this new program where you can learn about healthcare administration and how to lead in those spaces. If I can study that with accounting, that would be really cool.
I hope to be a knowledgeable person about finances and help build that foundation for my community. I want to impact kids and their families by helping them with financial literacy so that others have the best possible futures, and show them there are different options and fields they can study. They might see those kinds of fields as shut off for them. It’s really important for me that they can see me as that source of knowledge and hope.
What does earning a college degree mean to you and your family?
I asked myself, “What can I do for my family, my future and with my opportunities?” The answer for me is going to college. After doing a lot of research and analyzing what I want for my future, college became my main goal. I know I can learn a lot there, not just about my career, but also develop my values as well.
I’m a first-generation student because my parents never had access to that kind of thing back in Eritrea. So for my siblings and me to be able to attend college, it’s a dream come true for them because now we can have a better future than they’ve had. At the same time, it’s also inspiring for my younger siblings who are in elementary school and high school. It’s a great step forward for all of us because we’ve worked hard in school and now we’re seeing our goals succeed through education. It means a lot that they’re going to see us be doctors, accountants or whatever we want to be, and have a stable foundation in our lives.
Why did you choose George Fox University?
First and foremost, I want to stay in Oregon and support my family with everything they need. I chose George Fox because it aligns with my faith as a Christian-oriented school. I want to develop my values a lot and be able to discuss them with other people and have that mirrored in my environment. They also have many options for academic programs, which means I can get a lot of opportunities to learn about different things like business.
What about college are you most excited about?
I think it’ll be a great experience for me to learn how to be close to people. Through my high school experience, I’ve made friends but not close friends because I’ve been focused on school, work and my family. In college, I want to chill a little bit because it’s not just about education, it’s also about what you can do with the opportunities there. I want to learn more about other people and maybe get a best friend. I haven’t been close to people since I was in Eritrea. My time in America has just been “go go go,” so I hope I can have that experience and just enjoy that.
