Shahid Raki, a Sinclair Community College student would like to ask you a question: “How many family members do you have at Sinclair?”
One? Two? Maybe three? Well, Raki might have you beat.
Raki, an Allied Health major, estimates that he has nine relatives attending Sinclair and he is currently investigating the possibility that two more cousins have enrolled.
Raki first enrolled at Sinclair in 1969 and attended classes off and on throughout the 1970s.
He returned to Sinclair in March 2009 and currently considers himself “semi-retired,” but hopes to earn his Allied Heath degree and continue working part-time in the future.
Upon his return in 2009, he began to realize he wasn’t alone at Sinclair. Whether by transfer or direct-registration, he was sharing the Sinclair campus with quite a few of his younger family members.
As of right now, he believes he has four nephews, two cousins, one stepson and two great nieces. He is determined to track down every one and make contact.
Raki said he has a strong interest in genealogy and has made a hobby of learning his family’s history.
In the past, he has posed trivia challenges to his own family, asking who could guess how many of the 27 grandchildren on his father’s side were born in Greeneville, TN — one of the younger cousins correctly counted 17.
He is currently investigating a gender mix-up on his aunt’s death certificate as well as trying to locate his great aunt and uncle on his mother’s side.
“Unless you have a fragmented family, family’s your backbone,” he said. “If you can’t fall back on family, it’s really going to be tough on you.”
Raki said he has a rather large family spread out over the country and although some in his family prefer simply talking on the phone, he often uses Facebook or email to contact relatives over long distances.
“If you don’t know your family, you don’t often know your history,” he said.
Raki has lived in the Dayton area for 63 years. In 1971, he was drafted into the Army and was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany until 1973. While he was there, he attended the 1972 Olympics and was in Munich during the Israeli Olympic team hostage crisis.
Raki said that education is stressed in his family and that it’s understood that an education is needed to “get ahead.”
“I told my son, as a child, ‘you can never have too many tools in your toolbox, just too few,’” Raki said.
Even if he transfers to another school, he said he would still audit courses at Sinclair, especially language classes.
Raki said that through various jobs, service and education, he has picked up a little Spanish, German and Arabic and his familiarity in these languages are beneficial even if only to greet or help with simple directions.
“I found I have a knack helping people find things,” Raki said.
And now he wants to help Tartans find each other. So, how many relatives do you have attending Sinclair Community College?
Even if you don’t think you have Raki beat, tell us your story, tell us about your family and tell us how furthering your education has affected you and your family!
Please send your stories to clarion@sinclair.edu and maybe you can even help answer Raki’s big question: “Does anyone have more family at Sinclair than me?”