By Bonnie Adams, Government Editor
Westborough – For Westborough High School (WHS) student Tess Mitchell, “Life is good.” She is an excellent and motivated student, enjoys time with her friends and unlike many teens, has a close relationship with her mother, Bushra.
But it has not always been that way for 17-year-old Tess.
For the first few years of her life, she lived in her native Bangladesh with her parents and older brother, Raj. But her father's problem with anger management and subsequent abuse of his family caused tremendous strain, Tess said. After he divorced Bushra, their situation didn's improve and he made no effort to be with his children. The culture in Bangladesh, Tess added, does not offer much support to women who are on their own.
When Tess was seven, tragedy struck when Raj, who was only 16, died of cardiomyopathy.
“He basically needed a new heart,” Tess said, “and was not able to get one.”
After Raj's death, Bushra and Tess moved to the United States, where Bushra had family in Sudbury. Her mother soon met and married a local man, but for various reasons, the marriage did not last, Tess said, and ended in less than a year.
At this point, with the marriage ended and Bushra's family unwilling to take them in, the two became homeless. Tess, who was twelve-years old at the time, was placed in foster care by the Department of Social Services (DSS). As a result, she was attending school in Westborough but returning each afternoon to her foster home in Maynard.
Six months later, while Bushra was taking a course to become a certified nursing assistant, DSS arranged for the two to be together again at a family shelter. But, as Tess explained, she would sometimes return to the shelter after school only to find that she and her mother were to move to a different one, sometimes that very night.
After another six months, DSS helped them to find a home in Westborough, where they have? resided ever since.
Through all of the turmoil, Tess said, she has found a “sanctuary” of sorts in her schoolwork.
“I have always had really good grades, and focused on my schoolwork,” she said. “That's where I kept busy to keep everything else out.”
She also has praise for the many people who offered help to her and her mother.
“There are a lot of support groups here that helped us,” she said. “We'se at a good place now and thankful for all the great people who have helped us.”
Now that her life is stable, with her mom's encouragement, Tess is intent on finding ways to offer support to other women.
“I thought “Why wait until I am older, why not do it now?”” she said.
Upon researching different groups online she came across Women for Women, International, whose mission is to “help women around the world with education, shelter and provide counseling,” she noted.
“It's the kind of help we could have used in Bangladesh and got here in the U.S.,” she added.
Before Tess could start the WHS chapter, she first needed to get approval from Brian Callaghan, the school's assistant principal.
“We support Tess and her mission because it was clear after reading her proposal to start a chapter at Westborough High School that the goals, objectives and activities would make a positive impact in our school,” he said. “And, Tess was extremely articulate and organized about her intentions when she presented the idea that it was obvious she cared deeply about the group's mission.”
He added, “Every step of the process, Tess has demonstrated a high degree of maturity, compassion and humility. For someone her age to display these qualities as she has, what else could we say?”
The club, which has about 14 members, held its first fundraiser at the recent Westborough Spring Festival, where they raised $260 painting henna tattoos.
After a busy school year, Tess is looking forward to summer vacation, where instead of taking much of a break, she'sl be attending a three-week session on genetics at Brown University.
She is also looking beyond her life at WHS where she is hopeful that she will get into her “Dream school,” Columbia University, where she would like to study to become a cardiac surgeon.
“I want to help people who are in the situation that my brother was in,” she said. “I want them to have the chance that he didn's.”