CLEVELAND — "My mom worked a lot. She was a teacher, and my sister and I were either in day care or in school."
Sarah Shendy grew up in Saudi Arabia, with Egyptian ancestry. Her family moved to Cleveland in 1991, when she was 6 years old.
"I just remember it being very hard," she says. "My parents didn't have much growing up at all until they really built themselves here."
But today, Shendy is living the American dream — a dream of being a police officer in the United States. She says it's like night and day from where she came from.
"The police is very militarized (in my homeland) and it's really there to protect the government and the interests of the government," she explained. "Obviously, things are very different here, which is why I fell in love with policing."
When she became a U.S. citizen, she began training to be a police officer.
"I have always had that deep-seated passion for public safety and just helping and serving others."
And it wasn't easy, being a woman, Muslim, and a women of color. With humility, Shendy says she "happened to meet all the right people along the way that helped me get to where I am today."
Where she is today is being the first Egyptian American to serve at the Case Western Reserve University Police Department. She has now been promoted to lieutenant, the first woman of her ethnicity to achieve the rank anywhere in Ohio.
"Something that I really pride us on is the fact that we have built and sustained such a healthy culture here, and also one that promotes having women in leadership positions," she told 3News.
According to Shendy, only 13% of police officers in the United States are female, and just 3% of those are in leadership roles. In a male-dominated profession, Shendy has a calm demeanor, which she credits to her practice of Islam.
She leads by example, sitting in training classes that she will eventually take over. She listens to her peers, and provides leadership where others want to follow.
"I am more than wanting, and willing, to lay a brick road where one does not exist."
Shendy's promotion came despite being with CWRU for just over a year. She will be sworn in as a lieutenant on Tuesday.