SU film student offers glimpse into immigrant experience through the lens of a camera

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Rayan Mohamed, a sophomore film major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, arrived in Syracuse on Dec. 8, 2014, after spending seven years in an Ethiopian refugee camp. She was born in Somalia but left the country when she was young to make a nine-day journey across the border to Ethiopia.

“When I was three or four years old, my family, all of us left Somalia by a bus,” Mohamed said. “We arrived in Ethiopia and honestly, when we were first leaving, we didn’t know we were going to enter a refugee camp. We were just leaving because my mom was afraid we were all going to die together.”

Her experience as a refugee inspired her upcoming documentary project, which will focus on a local community center for immigrants that helped foster her own creativity. The documentary will be supported by Imagining America, which named Mohamed as a 2023-24 Joy of Giving Something Fellow on Aug. 15.

When Mohamed and her family came to the United States, they settled in the Northside neighborhood of Syracuse. It was here that Mohamad discovered the North Side Learning Center, which provides free services to refugees and immigrants, including tutoring and arts programs.

At the North Side Learning Center, Mohamed became involved with creative enrichment programs that set her on the path to becoming a filmmaker. In 2020, Mohamed was named a Narratio Fellow and, with the guidance of mentors she met through the center, created her first short film.

The film, “My Daily Routine,” documented a typical day in the life of a Muslim high school student, including balancing prayer with study. The positive experience Mohamed had while making the project inspired her to continue pursuing film.

Now, as a film student at Syracuse University, she is turning the camera back on the North Side Learning Center. With her newest fellowship, Mohamed plans to create a short documentary film about the mental health of young refugees centered around the work the center does. The documentary will feature various students who use the center’s resources.

“I felt like I was never able to share my story because it just felt wrong, or felt self-centered or like, I needed to tell different stories because it was not as important to tell refugee stories,” Mohamed said. “I’ve learned during the Narratio program, and in the communities I’ve been around for so long in Syracuse, that it is important to share these stories. It’s empowering.”

Mohamed hopes to begin shooting the film at the end of October after the Imagining America National Gathering in Providence, Rhode Island. In the meantime, she is busy meeting with potential collaborators and subjects to prepare for production.

As a sophomore, Mohamed’s Visual and Performing Arts coursework has mostly involved group projects focused on narrative filmmaking instead of documentary. However, she hopes to work on her new documentary project for class credit and is excited about the opportunity to work on a project with an independent vision.

“I’m really excited for this project because it’s the first big project that I have full creative control over,” Mohamed said.

In addition to filmmaking, Rayan pursued other creative ambitions at the center, including poetry and debate. In its first year, she was a member of the North Side Learning Center Speech and Debate team. The team was founded by Andy Ridgeway, a graduate student at SU.

Dr. Sean Drake, an assistant professor of sociology at SU, volunteers to help run the speech and debate team and met Rayan through his work with the center. He said that she frequently comes back to help out and give advice to the current high schoolers.

“She was a major participant, one of the leaders of that club, and so I had heard about her in that capacity before I met her,” Drake said. “Then this year, we’ve had a few meetings so far and she’s been there for a handful of them just to support the high school students who are coming up now. So that’s been really nice.”

Drake also said that a common issue in refugee communities is mental health and a lack of adequate resources in school districts to address it. Mental health resources are uniquely important for young refugees, whose journeys to the U.S. are often traumatic, Mohamed said. She hopes that other refugees who participate in her documentary will gain a sense of relief from it.

Mohamed’s sister, Ruweyda Mohamed, is a senior at Le Moyne College who also attended the North Side Learning Center throughout high school. She is proud of her sister for drawing attention to mental health in refugee communities with her work.

“Not only is she doing well academically, helping people, investing in the community (and) understanding their stories, she’s showing the world what her community is,” Ruweyda Mohamed said. “My whole family is proud of her.”