Syrian native Abeer Pamuk has wanted to come to the U.S. since she was a child. In anticipation of that day, she studied English Literature at the University of Aleppo. 

"I wanted to be a communicator, someone who will build a bridge between people," the 24-year-old said.

Her dream came true. After working with the NGO SOS Children's Villages in Syria and Morocco, she landed an Atlas Corps fellowship, which has been described as a "reverse Peace Corps." Her host firm in the U.S. is the children's journalism and advocacy group SparkAction.

Pamuk and seventeen other fellows arrived in the U.S. in January, just a few weeks before President Donald Trump issued an executive order that attempted to restrict travel to the U.S. from seven majority Muslim nations, including Pamuk’s Syria. That order has since been revised and is currently in legal limbo.

Actions like these can squash the joy out of an opportunity like this for Pamuk and the other Atlas Corps Fellows. "We were all worried about it,” said Pamuk. “It was the first talk the next morning, like ‘What's going to happen next. Are we going to be deported?’ It was a lot of confusion." After a frantic few days, the fellows were assured they would not be deported. But uneasy feelings remain.

In the meantime, Pamuk is acclimating to life in Brooklyn where she'll live for the next year until her fellowship ends. Life in New York is not what she is used to in Aleppo where most banks and shops are closed because of the on-going civil war. Pamuk said that for many days late last year, the bombs and bullets in her hometown were a near constant presence. Pamuk tries to put that out of her mind, along with her fears about the safety of her mother who is still in Aleppo, working as a nurse.

Instead she focuses on all the new tasks she's learning."My first experience in a laundromat...I didn't know what to do! I was asking the guy about each and every single step of that," said Pamuk. She's also had to learn how to navigate the grocery store with products she’s never seen before and going to the bank.

She's also trying to take in all that New York City has to offer, like a limited run of the Joffrey Ballet's New York performance of Romeo and Juliet.

"Actually, I've never seen ballet before," she said.

And after the performance? 

 "The ballet was gorgeous. It couldn’t have been better."