Asmae Lichir pointed to her wall, sparingly decorated with her graduation diploma from her previous college, fairy lights and a wall hanger printed with the portrait of an Arab woman surrounded by astrological signs and stylized Quran verses. “That picture,” she said, referring to another decoration, a painting of a row of women’s silhouettes walking through a golden gate with “Ada Comstock” engraved in the corner. “That was the first thing in my house.” Lichir said, “I had nothing in this apartment for almost a week. I was sitting on the floor. And I was doing work. I was looking at that every day. And I’m like, ‘I’m here for a reason.'”
Lichir, an Ada Comstock student, a single mother of a five-year-old and a biology major, recalled her love for science began when she was a “young African child”, with a microscope made out of cardboard. “I took it to this science fair, and one of the teachers was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s not a real one. I don’t like it.’ Her saying that it really gave me more love for microscopes.” Since the incident, a young Lichir started telling everyone in her family that she would be a doctor and was immediately dismissed. “They all said, oh, you’re going to get married,” Lichir said. But some people in her life cheered her on: her aunt taught her math and her parents paid for her private school throughout the years. “they could see the light in me,” she said.
“Life just changed. Like it flipped,” Lichir said about when she came to the United States. Fresh off the plane, she and her family lost their financial support. At 14 years old, she had to get a job to support her mother and two younger brothers. “I got off from school to go to work until 12 am. And then I had to study… However, I think that really showed me that I’m a very powerful person,” Lichir said, “And that I’m very strong, and I could do this. Life keeps pushing me.”
After more ordeals of college bankruptcy, marriage, divorce and being a teen mother, Lichir emerged as the advisory leader for Healthy Families, a support program organization that helped her through her tough times. Getting the position was a signal to Lichir, reminding her what she was capable of. “I actually said to myself, this is not who I am, and my dreams are still valid.”
The following fall, Lichir enrolled in Bunker Hill Community College, where she kicked off her new life as a researcher and a student. “My professor told me, ‘Keep working, Asmae. I think I know which college you should go to one day, and it’s called Smith. They have this program called Ada. I think you can do it.’ Two years later, I graduated, I got my associate degree. And it was Smith,” Lichir said.
On Lichir’s, a notebook with “be your most powerful self” written on the cover leans against the wall. “I take that notebook every day with me in my backpack, just knowing that this is a powerful setting that I am in and that all these women are here to make a change in the world.” Working with her professor, Lichir is currently patenting an invention that will be the keystone to her company Pathopocket Lab. If the patent goes through, it will complete another item on her dream list: to be the CEO of her company.
“Being a woman and being first-gen and being a mother, young mother, single mother and a Smithie, I already have power around me.” Lichir reflected on her experience at Smith so far, “I’m grateful for what Smith has given me.” she said, “And there’s a lot of things that I’m learning every day as this is my first semester. But it feels like I’ve been here for years.”
