JTC 26: Magnolia Trees and Olive Groves

Jana Abdrabbo puts others first. It is not something she announces. It is just how she operates.  

The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College member graduates from the University of Mississippi in May with a degree from the Croft Institute for International Studies and minors in public policy leadership and Arabic. She has conducted research in the Mississippi Delta and Jordan, built programs on campus and shown up for others in ways large and small. 

More than 30 years ago, Abdrabbo’s parents immigrated from Syria to Mississippi, where they raised their children: Jana, Sara and Zaid. The family of five is bilingual, but Arabic is the default language in their Madison home, and Abdrabbo is thankful for the ability to communicate with loved ones in Syria.  

Rooted in her parents’ homeland and in Mississippi, Abdrabbo has traveled to many places throughout the world. During her undergraduate tenure, she explored Saudi Arabia, Syria, Czechia, Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Jordan.  

“Don’t get caught up in the bubble we live in,” she said. “Don’t think because you are educated that you know everything.  

“We can live our entire lives and barely scratch the surface of all the knowledge in the world. Be open-minded and willing to learn.”  

That philosophy shaped how she approached her own education.  

“I actually tried to avoid law-related classes since I knew I was going to law school,” she said. “I tried to take a variety of honors conversations courses and special topics courses to broaden my horizons.  

"All those electives opened my eyes to different injustices in the world and strengthened my desire to go into law.”  

Inside or outside the classroom, Abdrabbo positively influences the spaces she occupies.  

“Jana’s the kind of person who doesn’t hesitate to take initiative and seize opportunities to build something special and meaningful for her community,” said close friend Zynub “Zuzu” Al-Sherri, who graduated in 2025. “She is deeply committed to serving others, making moments meaningful and bringing people together. 

“For example, Jana initiated a collaboration between Grove Grocery and the Muslim Student Association to bring suhoor (breakfast) bags to fasting Muslims on campus during Ramadan. Her thoughtfulness made everyone’s days better. Jana has a drive to make the world a better place.”  

Sibling Sara Abdrabbo, an Ole Miss sophomore, agrees.  

“Jana doesn't really leave things up to chance,” Sara Abdrabbo said. “She seizes opportunities, and when things shouldn't work, she makes them work.” 

As co-founder and president of the Syrian Emergency Task Force at Ole Miss, Abdrabbo organized an event that caught the attention of the national body. She led letter-writing initiatives to orphans affected by the war and raised funds to support Syrian refugees.  

As a Croft student, Abdrabbo committed to researching, writing and defending a thesis, which is also a requirement of the Honors College.  

While she planned to focus on the Middle East, an additional topic emerged during her sophomore year when she took honors PPL 387 Education Policy in the U.S. Melissa Bass, associate professor and undergraduate coordinator of public policy leadership, led the class.  

“Dr. Bass’s education policy class helped open my eyes to issues going on in our home state, and she’s part of the reason I want to stay in Mississippi for law school,” Abdrabbo said, “It was during her class that I did a service learning project related to ESL (English as a second language) education in Mississippi and also began doing research on education in the Mississippi Delta.” 

Abdrabbo decided to tutor Arabic-speaking English language learners at a local elementary school for her service-learning requirement. She felt an instant kinship with her first elementary school pupils: 7-year-olds from Yemen and Egypt.  

“Their families had arrived only recently, seeking refuge in the States after escaping conflict zones,” she said. “They barely spoke a word of English. But I did. And more importantly, I spoke Arabic. When they discovered I was Syrian, they laughed and hugged me. 

“In their wide eyes, I saw a younger version of myself: confused, isolated and trying to make sense of a world that hadn’t yet made room for them.” 

While most student volunteers leave once their hours are completed, Abdrabbo increased her tutoring hours, assumed more leadership roles and serves as the head student coordinator of the Oxford School District Bilingual Tutoring Program. She recruits Ole Miss student volunteers and guides them through onboarding and oversees the placement process.  

Initially, the program struggled to recruit volunteers, but the demand has grown to where the number of prospective volunteers exceeds the number of ESL students.  

With the Middle East, Mississippi and education in mind, Abdrabbo developed an idea for the Barksdale Award, the Honors College’s highest recognition for an innovative project or experience, which comes with $5,000 to make it happen.  

She won.   

Her winning proposal, “From Magnolia Trees to Olive Groves: Hope and Liberation Through Education,” also became the title of the thesis she successfully defended in April under the direction of Graham Pitts, Croft assistant professor of history and international studies.  

In his recommendation letter for the Barksdale Award, Pitts wrote that Abdrabbo is “a tenacious but careful student” with “the Arabic language and background necessary to connect with relevant stakeholders in Jordan and the Delta.” 

Last summer, Abdrabbo spent time in the Delta, specifically in Rosedale and Sunflower, where two of the three Freedom Projects are located. The projects “build community alongside young Mississippians through holistic and liberatory education experiences.” 

She toured schools and surrounding areas, interacted with educators and observed Freedom Project students. 

“Even those who hope to leave the Delta spoke of return,” she said. “They imagined education as something that could be carried outward and then brought back.  

“Those who had the least were often the ones most committed to staying. They did not view the Delta as something to abandon. It was their home.” 

With support from the Barksdale Award, Abdrabbo studied in Jordan for a second time and observed Palestinian students in the classroom and visited with the teachers, as she did in the Delta.  

The Freedom School students and the displaced Palestinian students are more than 6,000 miles apart, yet both populations share a desire to learn and to elevate themselves, their educations and their communities, Abdrabbo said. 

She wrote in her thesis: “From the classrooms of the Mississippi Delta to the schools that once stood in Gaza ... education emerges as an enduring practice of survival, dignity and resistance. By weaving together these stories, it becomes visible that within this struggle, there is a refusal to give up. A commitment to remain. A belief, however fragile, that things can be otherwise.”  

While in Jordan last fall, Abdrabbo and her fiancé, Ole Miss rising senior Jon McHard, volunteered at Queen Rania Al Abdullah Hospital for Children, where patients from Gaza had permission to cross the border into Jordan for medical care. Mothers shared stories of their sons, some as young as 7, fighting back home in Gaza.  

It was one of many experiences that shaped her undergraduate years. 

Among her many accolades, Abdrabbo was the only junior inducted into the UM Hall of Fame last year and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies and Ole Miss Mortar Board.  

This fall, she heads across campus to the School of Law to begin the next phase of her journey. But for someone who has traveled to so many places, her vision for the future remains rooted close to home.  

At Madison Central High School, Abdrabbo dreamed of leaving Mississippi to start her life. Now she dreams of raising a family in the Jackson area, practicing law and taking annual summer trips to visit extended family in Syria. 

Top: Jana Abdrabbo, a Croft Institute for International Studies senior from Madison, channeled her Syrian heritage and a deep commitment to serving others into research spanning the Mississippi Delta and Jordan, co-founding the Syrian Emergency Task Force at Ole Miss and leading the Oxford School District Bilingual Tutoring Program. She heads to Ole Miss School of Law in the fall. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services