By leaving, Hikmat Abou Shahla gained the power to provide hope and healing, here and back home.
Well-versed in inhumanity, Hikmat Abou Shahla decided to push toward the opposite extreme, love—of science, leadership, hard work, and … fellow humans.
“I come from Rashaya, Lebanon, a very small town about 30 minutes from the Syrian border, but also one mountain away from Palestine,” explains the Master’s (Entry into Nursing) student. “So, it’s kind of like in the middle of all of it.”
Meaning endless conflict between regional neighbors; a decades-long recovery from Lebanon’s own ruinous civil war; man-made disasters like a 2020 chemical explosion in Beirut that killed hundreds and injured thousands including Abou Shahla, a first responder (“after barely starting my surgical tech training program in Lebanon”). He remembers hiding at a grandmother’s house at age 4 from incoming missiles and, later, surviving a vicious personal assault.
Abou Shahla has seen and felt shocking violence. Somehow, his affection for people has only grown.
At 14, Abou Shahla first experienced life outside Lebanon, spending the 2017 school year in the Northern California town of Oroville through the Youth Exchange & Study (YES) program. He calls it a mix of challenges and growth within the community and his beloved California host family. He then returned to Lebanon to finish high school, apply for college, and greatly miss the openness—and even the (admittedly fair) parental scoldings—of that second family.
California State University, Chico is conveniently close by Oroville. The choice to attend almost made itself. As for nursing, Abou Shahla discovered it in a Chico State lab.
“I studied molecular biology and did my minor in organic chemistry. It was a crazy mistake,” he laughs, “but I spent a lot of that time doing research, and that’s when I realized that I want something different. I want to incorporate science into what I do, but I want more social interactions, that human-to-human lifestyle kind of a thing.”
In nursing, his lab science background would be a plus, “but I could also be with people, be able to help them, hang out with them, and chat with them. I still do research now. I just love being involved in a clinical setting as well.”
Another clear passion is staying busy. “I know my time here at Johns Hopkins is fairly limited, so I wanted to make sure to take advantage.” And so he has, as a tutor, teaching and research assistant, and as vice president for interschool relations for the JHSON Student Senate.
“I do a lot of meetings with the Schools of Public Health and Medicine and also the Homewood graduate programs—just get together and plan something for all the students to be able to interact. Collaboration between future public health specialists, nurses, doctors, and pharmacists is essential.”
“I wanted to do something that gave me some sense of purpose.”
In spring 2024, Abou Shahla co-launched the Integrative Medicine Interest Group with fellow student Nicole Calcagno (who serves with him on the Student Senate Executive Board as well) to help shift a focus away from symptom management above all else. The group brings in guest speakers from across the preventive care spectrum, sprinkling in yoga and acupuncture instructors “to teach us in different ways that we can take care of our bodies before we get to an illness.” At 100 members so far, the group might just be onto something.
A job as pediatric ICU nurse at Georgetown University Hospital also awaits.
On top of all this, Abou Shahla is part of the Nursing Research Honors Program working with Assistant Professor Rebecca Wright, PhD, BSC (Hons), RN, on demystifying palliative care by untangling the research to date. “We go over every single paper that was ever written about palliative care, and we categorize them—we’re building this taxonomy, this big, big chart, organizing it better so people can start building on it.”
In many ways, all of this positive energy is driven by memories from those darkest days of Abou Shahla’s life, moments when he felt powerless. Like the September 2021 death of his California host father from COVID-19. In his despair, “I wanted to do something that gave me some sense of purpose.” A friend’s phone call from Lebanon provided hope.
The Novick Cardiac Alliance, a foundation based in Memphis TN that performs heart surgery on needy children across the globe, was headed toward Rashaya and seeking extra hands. Abou Shahla raced home to volunteer and “was exposed to culturally diverse people working together for the first time.” Amazed and reinvigorated by Novick’s mission, Abou Shahla made it his own: destroy cultural and economic barriers to care through global health; help young people dream of better lives. In Baltimore, and soon at Georgetown, he’s getting to practice.
Giving back
“Now that I’m approaching the end of this program, I feel like it’s actually happening. Now, I go to the hospital and I have actually been able to leave an impact on a pediatric patient’s life. And I love that.”
Longer term? “Get my PhD and DNP so I can one day start a pediatric nurse practitioner program in Lebanon,” he explains, pointing to a dire shortage of physicians in Lebanon with no NPs to help bridge the gap. Abou Shahla points to an established relationship between JHSON and the American University of Beirut’s nursing program as a possible pathway. “That’s where I came from and I just want to give back to that community.” ◼