Sun heats the desert and a mirage of an oasis of blue water dances on the horizon.

A grandmother has been walking for 10 days – from Palestine to Jordan – with her six children to flee the Palestinian-Israeli war. It’s 1968.

However, her sacrifice to leave her homeland was not like the mirage she saw in the desert. She found true refuge and paved the way for her family to come to America and have a better life.

Today, 55 years later, that grandmother’s granddaughter, born in Jordan, identifies as a Palestinian woman. As the president of the Associated Students Organization at El Camino College, 18-year-old Jana Abulaban is now advocating for people like her grandmother who was once a refugee after being displaced by the war and genocide.

In July 2016 at the age of 12, Abulaban first arrived in America after her grandfather who was granted U.S. citizenship sponsored Abulaban’s parents and their five children to travel from Jordan.

At first, she was not even sure her family would stay in America. But soon after they arrived, they were granted permanent residence – known as green cards.

Abulaban’s own experience as a refugee started in Jordan. Despite being born in Jordan, she was not granted citizenship. As a result, she was denied access to a good education and had slim chances of upward mobility.

Today, Abulaban who is majoring in communications and psychology, is one step closer to accomplishing her educational goal at El Camino College to earn an associate degree transfer.

She ran for Associated Students Organization president position in the spring of 2022 and won. Abulaban emerged as a leader of 35 student government members at El Camino College.

A year later, she’s getting ready to transfer to UCLA. She’s traveled from Washington, D.C., to Japan as part of the forensics team.

As the ASO president, Abulaban helped to make student-led initiatives come to fruition.

“I was part of the menstrual products machines initiative,” Abulaban says. “Thankfully, we were able to achieve it by the end of the fall (2022) semester.”

On Fridays, Abulaban leads the student government’s meeting. Wearing a long flowery dress and a light pink hijab, she enters a meeting room where Associated Students Organization members gather. Standing and speaking in a soft voice, everyone turns their attention to her.

She can see how much student government can create a change on campus. She believes there are more things that the college could offer to students.

“I want to be part of this group that’s able to create that change. I’ve always been big on advocacy,” Abulaban says.

As the president, she oversees all the student government’s proposed activities and initiatives and helps to make them happen.

In the summer of 2022, she sat down with the elected vice president, discussed ideas and then set top priorities.

This year, Abulaban is working on a project advocating stipends for the Associated Students Organization and Inter-Club Council members. She said that all the advocacy work that the members have done needs to be compensated. Being curious, she wanted to find out how El Camino can offer more benefits and better training to its student government members.

As Abulaban looked into the best practices that can be implemented at El Camino College, she talked to student government members from other community colleges and found out they are getting paid for their work.

Interim Director of the Student Development Office Ricardo Gonzalez who advises ASO said ASO is an organization “by students, for students and run by students.”

Gonzalez said that not only Abulaban led the student government organization, but also helped members to become better student leaders.

“Jana is by far one of the most integral service-based, equity-minded and innovative leaders that I have seen in this institution for a long time,” Gonzalez said.

Former El Camino College Student Development Office Director Greg Toya worked with Abulaban as the ASO president prior to taking a new position at Santa Ana College.

“Jana is an outstanding leader,” Toya said. “She’s very grounded and reliable and consistent.”

Abulaban enjoys her time at El Camino College and wants to ensure that students have a better experience at the college.

“I want them to live like that true college experience without having to try to remove as many barriers from them as possible and want to ensure that their voices are heard,” Abulaban says.

She also wants students’ basic needs to be met. She believes that to be able to succeed at school, students need food, transportation and a place to sleep.

“Whatever goal you have whether that’s graduating, or getting a certificate degree transferring, anything like that, I want to make sure that you have all the support you need,” Abulaban says.

In March 2023, Abulaban and 10 student government members from El Camino College attended the American Student Association of Community Colleges (ASACC) in Washington, D.C., and visited Senators Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla’s offices.

During the trip to the Capitol, Abulaban and ASO Public Relations Director Sabrina Rashiq introduced a higher education bill for refugee students to pay tuition fees as residents rather than international students to Padilla’s staff members.

She says that she noticed that there are flaws in the existing system for refugee students who are looking to study abroad in the United States.

“There are certain crazy requirements that you need to have at least $20,000 in your bank account before applying and that you need to maintain that for a certain amount of time,” Abulaban says.

Abulaban and Rashiq suggested a new immigration processing category for refugee students looking to come to the United States to complete their higher education. She says it can look like the existing priority refugees category that requires sponsorships from family or organizations to come to the U.S. rather than showing $20,000 in their bank account which is almost impossible for a refugee.

After coming back from Washington, D.C., Abulaban and Rashiq continue to work on drafting legislation with representatives who said they would be happy to co-sponsor.

Wearing a different hat, Abulaban is also a member of the forensics team that participates in national and international speech and debate competitions representing El Camino College. However, her advocacy for refugees and new immigrants also reflects in her speech and debate performances.

Captain of the forensics team at El Camino College Uzair Pasta has known Abulaban since they were on the same debate team during freshman year at West Torrance High School five years ago.

In addition, Pasta works together with Abulaban in the Associated Students Organization and Muslim Student Association Club. Pasta says that Abulaban wears a lot of hats without being overwhelmed.

“I would say that her ability to manage and prioritize her time is quite impressive,” Pasta says. “I’m truly impressed at how she’s able to handle all these different tasks.”

Pasta says that Abulaban is a true inspiration.

“She came from Jordan, she is from Palestinian background….yet she is able to not only succeed at El Camino, but also thrive,” Pasta says.

On a late Wednesday afternoon, Abulaban gathered with Pasta and around 30 Muslim students inside the Social Justice Center. The room was filled with joy and laughter. She grabbed some vegetables, rice and a donut for dessert from a potluck table and sat down.

Around 5 p.m., right in the middle of enjoying her meal, she paused to check her phone. That was the day that UCLA sent out a letter of acceptance to prospective students. A few seconds after reading her email inbox, she smiled calmly and said “Alhamdulillah” which means praise be to God. She got accepted to UCLA to major in psychology for the fall 2023 semester.

Abulaban says her career aspiration is to be a lawyer and go to a law school to learn immigration or international law because of her experience living as a refugee in Jordan.

“I realized that just because of your status you’re treated differently, just because you’re from a specific place,” Abulaban says.

She says she will continue to advocate for people’s rights and make sure that “everybody has the rights that they deserve.”

Editor’s Note:

• Headline was updated for context and photos were enlarged on Sunday, June 11.