‘At university, I can rebuild myself,’ says Sam Izadloo, an Iranian refugee from Ukraine
"The university has been one of the places where I feel welcome. In general, I feel accepted, I've met incredible people and I'm grateful. Perhaps I've been one of the luckiest in this game of chance." These are the words of Sam Izadloo, 26, born in Iran and a refugee from Ukraine, now in his third year of Medicine at Católica Medical School, which he is attending thanks to a scholarship from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa dedicated to refugees.
"I was lucky enough to meet the right people at the right times so that I could heal. Right now, I find the university to be the place where I can rebuild myself," she says in an interview with Público newspaper.
An example of courage, Sam Izadloo left his native Iran when he was 15 for ‘political reasons’. ‘It was no longer safe, there was no future for me,’ he says, explaining that the obligation to do military service at 18 limited his studies. And his dreams. ‘I really wanted to study medicine’.
He decided to move to Ukraine on his own to study, but his journey was interrupted by the war with Russia. He fled to the west of the country, spent a few months in Turkey until he tried to return to Ukrainian territory to obtain the necessary documents to prove his studies.
At the time, he found it very difficult to enter because he had a passport from Iran, Russia's ally in the conflict. ‘I had become a threat in the country I called home.’ He couldn't return to Iran either. He tried to go to Austria. He ran into problems again because of his nationality, which were repeated in Germany. Then he realised that ‘Portugal was accepting refugees from Ukraine’. He flew to Porto, but because there was no vacancy at the National Support Centre for Immigrant Integration, he was put up in a youth hostel in Lagos, in the Algarve. He stayed there for six months without knowing what his future would be.
In April 2023, with all her documents, she left for Coimbra to try to return to school. Then he learnt that the Universidade Católica Portuguesa had scholarships for refugee students. "The day I was accepted was the best day of my life. After a year and a half of uncertainty, I could breathe a sigh of relief," she recalls.
Aiming to specialise in Family Medicine, Sam Izadloo was able to continue his education thanks to scholarships for refugees, as part of the programme to support students in humanitarian emergencies. In 2025, 14 scholarships were made available for bachelor's and master's programmes on the university's four campuses.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Católica has promoted this initiative, which is part of the national effort to welcome and integrate refugees and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations (UN). Recently distinguished by the UN, this programme aims to promote the inclusion and integration of refugees, strengthening the university's commitment to diversity and social responsibility.
‘The journey to get to this point has been full of obstacles and tribulations, and I am deeply grateful for the unwavering support and guidance that has accompanied me along the way,’ Sam Izadloo had already assured at a UCP event, emphasising that the scholarship has changed his life. ‘It has opened doors that are not normally available to people in my circumstances,’ he said, praising Católica's ‘inclusive approach’.