Ayah Kareem Naimi, award-winning writer and leader, chooses a career in law
For recent HFC graduate Ayah Kareem Naimi, writing has always been the way she translates the world.
“I remember the exact moment when the spark caught,” recalled Naimi. “I was in fifth grade, writing a historical fiction essay on the Gold Rush. My main character was named Grace and through her, I realized that words were a way to explore lives I hadn't lived and feelings I hadn't yet named.”
“A Lullaby for the Minotaur” wins first-place Barrett Award
An award-winning writer for The Mirror News, HFC’s student-run newspaper, Naimi was the first-place winner at this year’s Francis G. Barrett Creative Writing Contest with the Larry Colter Poetry Prize and Grunow Writer’s Prize for her short story called “A Lullaby for the Minotaur.”
When HFC English instructor and The Mirror News faculty advisor Dr. Peter Kim notified Naimi she had won, she was tucked away in the Honors Hub, completing an assignment for HFC English instructor Ruth Ann Schmitt’s creative writing class.
“My eyes nearly doubled in size just reading the subject line of Dr. Kim’s email,” she recalled. “When I opened it, I could only repeat ‘Oh my God!’ like a mantra. I immediately shared the news with my friend sitting across from me, and I’ve been buzzing with restless pride ever since!”
In “A Lullaby for the Minotaur,” Naimi wanted to bridge the gap between ancient myth and modern trauma.
“I’ve always felt a deep, aching empathy for Asterion the Minotaur. My own history was a sort of labyrinth of discipline without affection, and I wanted to write a story where the ‘monster’ finally gets to take off the mask and be seen as a survivor,” explained Naimi.
“A lullaby is often one of the first forms of love we receive. Asterion listened to lullabies from his mother as I listened to lullabies from my own before that was stripped away. The title represents the tenderness he was denied. It’s a song for the starry one who was forced into the dark, and a song for myself as I learn to sit with my own vulnerability without shame.”
On the surface, her story could be a reimagining of the Greek myth of Asterion. Looking deeper, the story is a mirror.
“It is a raw, parallel exploration of my own life,” said Naimi. “It’s about navigating a childhood that felt like a labyrinth of cold stone and conditional love. I wanted to show how the world creates ‘monsters,’ how no child is inherently evil. For a long time, I believed I was born wrong. This story is about the moment I stopped calling scraps a meal and realized that I wasn't a monster – I was the consequence of a world that forgot how to love a child with horns on its head. It’s about taking off the mask, looking at the stars, and finally singing my own lullaby rather than begging someone else to.”
Kim was elated that Naimi won first place.
“Ayah is an amazing individual, and the award is so well deserved,” said Kim. “Hearing her read from her award-winning story, ‘A Lullaby for the Minotaur,’ was heart-wrenching, courageous, and inspiring. Ayah has already accomplished so much, and I know she will continue to excel in whatever she pursues."
Naimi found winning to be a transformative moment.
“Winning felt like a quiet, sudden validation that reached deep into my chest,” she said. “To be honest, I didn't think I would win. I was absolutely obsessed with my friend Alex Gray’s poetry and their (short fiction) ‘Cloverkid.’ I was so certain Alex’s writing would take the top spot in both categories! But seeing my own work recognized made vulnerability feel, for the first time, like a superpower. A major goal of mine has been to find power within the things that make us fragile, and to see that vulnerability rewarded was an amazing and surreal moment.”
Part of the force that stops the cycle
The eldest of four, Naimi graduated from Dearborn High School, where she was dual-enrolled in the Henry Ford Collegiate Academy (HFCA). Her brother Yusef completed his first year at HFC, and her brother Adam has been accepted to the HFCA.
“I am a daughter of Dearborn through and through. I’ve spent all of my life right here, rooted in the pavement of these streets. This city is the backdrop of my entire history and the community that shaped my heart,” she said.
On May 9, Naimi, who speaks fluent Arabic and conversational Spanish, graduated from HFC. She earned her associate degree in liberal arts with a concentration in political science. She is also a certified ABA Behavior Technician and is certified in CPR and first aid.
Naimi is deciding between transferring to Wayne State University and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Wherever she ends up, she will major in sociology. Her subsequent goal is to attend law school.
“My journey toward civil rights law wasn't born out of a simple interest. It was forged in the fires of survival,” she explained. “As a Palestinian-Syrian woman, my life has been a mosaic of experiences that no child should have to navigate. At 17, I reached a point where I felt utterly helpless. I feared I was destined to be nothing more than a recurring tragedy subjected to constant abuse in all its forms. What pulled me through was the realization that these horrors weren't random acts of fate; they are the products of systems designed to breed them. I realized that by understanding the architecture of these systems, I could learn how to dismantle them. I am choosing law as a career because I refuse to let others be buried in the same silence that nearly consumed me. I believe that once we name the system, we can break it, and I intend to be part of the force that stops the cycle.”
HFC as “a vessel for my intensity and a community that felt like home”
In choosing HFC, “What started as a practical decision turned into a rewarding journey,” she said. “It became the landscape where I learned to plant seeds of connection. It gave me a vessel for my intensity and a community that felt like home.”
Naimi was heavily involved in the campus community at HFC. She was a member of the Henry Ford II Honors Program and Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) (Alpha Xi Mu) chapter. She served as president of PTK during her final semester.
“It’s been a whirlwind, but I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built together in PTK in such a short time,” she said. “We officially kicked off our Five Star Chapter Plan and have been collaborating closely with the Student Council on our College Project Plan. One of our most exciting initiatives is working with the Learning Lab and the web design team to overhaul the Learning Lab website, ensuring it is accessible and user-friendly for every student.”
Naimi was the founder and leader of the Honors Always Building Community (ABC) Committee. ABC’s mission is weaving a sense of belonging through events like the "Honors in the Air" and “Honors Crescent Moon: Eid al-Fitr" celebrations. She is in the process of submitting the research from her Honors Directed Study on rape culture to sociology journals and conferences.
“I believe knowledge shouldn't be locked,” she said. “I want to make my research as accessible as possible for the community.”
A practical blueprint for building community
Naimi was a member of The Mirror News staff that won a record 40 awards at the 47th annual Michigan Community College Press Association (MCCPA). She won:
- Second Place for Best Blog: “AYATI: Love Letters to the Wounded and Verses on Healing, Liberation, and the Cost of Silence”
- Honorable Mention for Serious Column: “Sweep It Under the Rug, America!”
“Ayah Naimi is among our best and brightest students,” said Schmitt. “Her work confronts the world with honesty; it ranges from the personal to the political and always focuses on social justice. We always find worlds of empathy in her writing.”
As both the PTK and Honors Program faculty advisor, Chardin Claybourne has worked with Naimi numerous times.
“Ayah is one of the most capable and driven students I’ve had the pleasure of knowing,” he said. “She puts her whole self into whatever she is working on, and it always shows through the results. She has already amassed an impressive amount of awards and served in multiple leadership positions. I know that Ayah’s passion for justice, coupled with her exceptional writing skills, will make her a force in her chosen profession as an aspiring civil rights lawyer. I’m so proud to have the privilege to work with such a strong, intelligent, funny, and committed person as Ayah!”
Naimi feels extremely prepared academically and professionally as she transfers from HFC.
“The College provided the rigor I needed to sharpen my intellect and the vessel I needed to channel my intense curiosity into real-world research and political analysis,” she said. “Serving as PTK president and leading the ABC Committee taught me that to lead is to do. It turned my internal cocktail of emotions into a practical blueprint for building community and managing complex projects.”