Amani Alkellaney was a freshman in high school when the Iraq War started, sending her family into years of upheaval as they fled their home in Iraq, living temporarily in Jordan and then Syria before eventually making their way to Oak Ridge.
Now 34, Amani is a college graduate with a career that has taken her from engineering, into real estate, and as of last year, a growing insurance agency.
She recently reached out to Bridge Refugee Services, interested in giving back to the organization that supported her family after they arrived in the United States. Amani is hopeful that her story can be an inspiration, particularly for children who are struggling and not sure if they’ll be able to thrive in the United States. She hopes they can see her and think, “She’s an immigrant. She had it rough just like me, but she turned out okay.”
Leaving Iraq
When the Iraq War began, Amani was living in south Iraq with her father, a physicist, her mother, and an older sister and brother. As violence increased and threats mounted against Christians, her family grew increasingly concerned for their safety. “We just packed our bags and kind of left overnight,” Amani said, going to live with an aunt in the countryside.
Their timing turned out to be fortuitous. They found out later that, shortly after they left, their home had been robbed, riddled with bullets, and set on fire. “We wouldn’t have survived if we would have stayed,” Amani said.
But even in the countryside, they could hear bombing and saw buildings destroyed. As the war continued, her father faced threats both for being Christian and for his work as an interpreter. Fearing for their safety, he hired a driver to take them to Jordan. Amani remembers her father telling her and her sister to dress as boys so they were more likely to stay safe.
Years of Upheaval
The family packed blankets in case they had to sleep outside once they arrived in Jordan. “We didn’t know what to expect. We thought we’d be on the streets,” Amani said.
With their church’s support, they found a place to live. But the family was in Jordan illegally, and her brother was soon caught by authorities, beaten, jailed, and deported back to Iraq. To reunite, the family moved to Syria, while her father stayed behind in Jordan to work and provide for his wife and children. They were in Syria for a rough 18 months before they moved to the United States.
Arriving in Oak Ridge
The family reunited at Knoxville’s airport in 2009, when Amani was 19 years old. “We were really happy just to be together,” she said. The family moved into a two-bedroom townhouse in Oak Ridge. Bridge helped furnish the family’s home and provided them with rides from place to place until they got a car.
Her father, a physicist, believed Oak Ridge would be a promising destination for his family because he was hoping to be hired at one of the government labs. Unfortunately, he soon discovered that, even though he had a doctorate in physics, his education was not recognized, and he struggled to find a job in his field. “All of his future dreams and hopes shattered completely. But I tell you one thing, we were truly loved as kids,” Amani said. “And that’s the sacrifice that they made for us.”
‘Hard Work Always Pays Off’
The years of uncertainty Amani faced after the Iraq War were tough, especially mentally. “It was difficult,” she said. “I didn’t know if I would make it. I didn’t know if I can be successful. I didn’t know what my future would hold.”
Similar to her father, Amani discovered that her high school education also didn’t transfer, so she worked to get her GED. “It was a rough couple of years getting adjusted and everything,” she said. But she was extremely driven. “Hard work always pays off,” she said.
From her family’s home in Oak Ridge, she walked to Ruby Tuesday to work as a hostess, even though she didn’t speak much English. She took English classes through Bridge to improve her language skills.
She studied science, then later majored in engineering. At age 27, she graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in chemical engineering.
After college, she was hired at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge as a control systems engineer on the Uranium Process Facility project. The first person she called to tell was her father. After four years working at Y-12, she moved from engineering into real estate, working as a realtor in Knoxville and in Florida. Last fall, Amani joined Family First Life Maverick, an insurance agency offering life insurance, annuities, and retirement plans, and has become one of its leaders. She is mindful that many immigrants come to the United States with nothing, and that working in insurance is a way to show them there are steps they can take to protect their family’s future.
For every step in her education and career, she credits her hard work ethic. “The one thing that I would honestly like to deliver, and the message … is to give those immigrants hope that you can be successful,” she said. “You can have this to actually even push you through. I know for a fact I am my parents’ retirement plan. And I’m very proud that I can take care of them.”
Home in Tennessee
When Amani first arrived in the United States, she said she felt like “the only brown person” in Oak Ridge. “Back in 2009, everywhere I went, people are like, ‘Where are you from?’”
A decade and a half after they arrived in the United States, Amani’s family is still together in Tennessee. Her parents and her brother and his family live in Knoxville, while her sister and her family live in Nashville. Amani, after a year living and working in Florida, is back in Tennessee, living in Farragut. “I do feel finally, I do feel like Tennessee is home,” Amani said. “I’ve accepted that. At first I didn’t know where home is, but now, this is home.”
Giving Back
Amani has a strong memory of a gift she received shortly after her family arrived in Jordan: a shoebox, filled with items like socks, pencils, and American candy (similar to Bridge’s current Smile-A-Day Boxes). It was around Christmas time, and the box meant a lot to her. “It was the first type of gift that we had received in a long time that wasn’t a used item or handed down to us,” she said.
The shoebox was from an organization called Operation Christmas Child. These days, Amani volunteers for the organization, helping raise money so children who are going through a tough time receive a kind gift, like she did so many years ago.
The challenges immigrant families face are never far from her thoughts. On vacation in Greece, she saw families from Syria on the street, and went and got them food and left it for them. Seeing them, she thought about her own family, who went through a tough experience but found help along the way to make it through.
“I was just like, thank God, we didn’t really have to sleep on the street,” she said, reflecting on the families she saw in Greece. “We thought we would be, but that didn’t happen because church and places like Bridge and what not took care of us. I know a lot of people might think they’re doing an itty bitty small thing, but it goes a long way.”