Story: Molly Butler
Sagr lived in London and arrived in Sheffield in 1997 with his brother and a sister. He lived in Burngreave and went to Parson Cross College doing a GNVQ in Information Technology.
He went to the Yemini Refugee Organisation as a volunteer and progressed to paid work for two years at the Spectrum Centre as a system network administrator for their computer network. He also worked on many of the events held at the centre.
When the job came to an end because of funding, his friends and family encouraged him to go to university to further his education and he did Information Technology Networks at Sheffield Hallam University.
“I had particular support from two friends who I call my two golden brothers, Adel and Hani Mutlak, who said ‘we’ve done it, why not you.’”
The degree included personal development in IT such as Cisco Academy in networking 1 and 2, Local Area Network, application programming and data modelling alongside the cutting edge of computer databases. It was challenging, but he believes IT is the way forward for success.
Sagr graduated on the same day as his sister, Naserin who achieved a BSc (Hon) in Forensic Engineering, and now he is trying to persuade Noria, his younger sister, to follow in their footsteps, after achieving ten GCSEs!
He would like to thank his parents for their motivation. He also says that people at university are very friendly and really helpful, and he made good friends. Sagr thinks education is very important and you have to work hard, but he said:
“If I can do it, anyone can!”
He has applied to do a Master's and hopes to progress to a professional job in IT.