Mercy sophomore Angelina Hamati may be a student during the school day, but after 2:35 p.m., she is a tutoring philanthropist. When Hamati is not busy with school work, she spends her time tutoring fellow students for a cause dear to her through her small non-profit company, Hamati Helps. 

“Hamati Helps is a way for me to help two big groups of people that I care a lot about,” said Hamati, “one of them being my fellow students, and the other being refugees.” As a daughter of two immigrants from the Middle East, Hamati is very passionate about providing help to those who want to leave where they live, the way her parents did.

Hamati is a very intelligent student who frequently gets asked for academic assistance by her peers. To meet her fellow classmates’ demands for help and simultaneously give support to refugees, she established Hamati Helps. All profits Hamati earns through tutoring go to the United Nations Refugee Agency. 

“People were asking me for help,” said Hamati, “because of the reputation I gained at school.” In order to assist the large number of classmates who ask for help, Hamati provides one-on-one tutoring sessions and group study sessions before big tests. She tutors in any class she has previously taken or currently takes.  

Although numerous requests for tutoring are what gave Hamati the idea to create Hamati Helps, the successes she sees in her classmates are what drive Hamati to continue with the program. 

“All of the excitement and relief from the students is really what inspired me to keep going with [Hamati Helps],” said Hamati. The gratitude and improvement of her peers helps Hamati to continue doing what she is doing. 

Hamati hopes her program will continue to help students and refugees for years to come, regardless of how such work is done. 

According to Hamati, “The company will definitely change . . . but I do think I want to continue doing something along the lines of [Hamati Helps] continuing forward.”