Lara Moussa’s Universal Learning Academy Experience Has Her Poised for Success

Look up “leadership” in the dictionary, and you’ll see a picture of Lara Moussa, a graduating senior at Universal Learning Academy, a charter school in Westland. You’ll probably see her photo under “poise” and “opportunity,” too.

Consider just some of what she did and accomplished during her four years of high school:

• She serves as President of the school’s National Honor Society chapter, leading several of their projects and fund-raisers along the way.
• She serves as a Wayne County College Access Network High School Student Ambassador, a prestigious leadership initiative for high school juniors and seniors.
• She founded ULA’s Literacy Workshop, Comfort Cart Initiative, Elementary Incentive System and the 2026 NHS Donation Legacy.
• She serves in ULA’s student government as the Public Relations Officer and Advocacy Student Speaker.
• She founded her own podcast, The Teen Talk Podcast, and founded a scholarship as part of that effort.
• She’s also spoken at the National Student Leadership Conferences in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as at the Michigan State Board of Education meeting.

Oh, and she also took 18 dual-enrollment credits, worked as a legal intern, won numerous awards for her academic excellence, and worked as the business manager for a construction business.

Whew.

Suffice it to say that Lara Moussa made the most of her high school experience – and then some. And she said it was all made possible because of the community environment at Universal Learning Academy, and the opportunities that came her way as a student there.

“Charter school communities are so expansive,” she said. “It's beautiful. They spend every single day working to not only prove themselves, but to show that they are caring for their students in ways that are more powerful than traditional schools because we're getting down to the nitty gritty of every single student. And we're letting students who come from so many different diverse backgrounds, economically different backgrounds, and we’re giving the same great education to every single one of them.”

Lara is the daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Layal Boussi and Ali Moussa. “My parents both came over here when they were 17 years old, the same age I am now,” she said. “They’re the hardest-working people I know.”

She’s been a charter school kid her whole life. Her parents enrolled her at Star International Academy, a charter school in Dearborn Heights, when she was in kindergarten. In fourth grade, she switched to Universal Learning Academy; both schools are managed by Hamadeh Educational Services.

“My parents chose this school for me because they knew I needed somewhere smaller as a school for me to thrive,” she said. “The best thing that I was ever granted from my charter school was definitely the help that I got when I was diagnosed ADHD. When you’re in a larger school and you’re neurodivergent, they might miss some things. At a school like ULA, you get exactly the type of help and support you need.”

Lara tells a great story to illustrate the type of individual support she received at a charter school.

“When I was very young, in third grade, I was that kid who was always reading,” she said. “The librarian at my old school, Star, noticed that I just wanted to spend all my time in the library. I still had to go to class, but she started spending time with me. She let me organize all the bookshelves. This was so amazing to me because I was only in third grade.

“And she allowed me to expand all of the different organization skills I had,” Lara said. “She let me give her ideas for the way to set up the library to be more like inclusive for the younger kids who can't read certain books, stuff like that. And I remember thinking, no other adult was going to sit there and work with you and work with your brain and allow you to be expressive in the way that you want to be expressive.”

When she got to high school at ULA, it was her counselor, May Sabah, who took a special interest in her.

“Everybody at ULA knows Ms. May,” Lara said. “You will not find a counselor to which they know your entire background, they know your entire story, they are there for you when you need it, like Ms. May. She’s like one of my lifelong best friends even though she's my counselor. If I had gone to any other school, I would not have met someone who granted me this metaphysical aspect and feeling of just feeling understood and letting me know whenever I need anything that I have someone to go to.”

Because Lara knows how important that kind of support can be, it’s informed what she wants to do next with her life and her career.

“You know, ULA, it's unique in the sense of everyone gets a chance. Everyone gets a chance and you're allowed to be different,” she said. “I wasn’t the kind of student who just wanted to take as many AP classes as I could and just get good grades. As a neurodivergent student, I’m extremely passionate about reforming the legal education system and how we view economically disadvantaged students and neurodivergent students and giving them more access.”

Lara is going to be attending the University of Detroit Mercy with a double major in biopsychology and neuroscience on a pre-law track.

“I’m hopefully going to become a lawyer in the next six years,” she said. “I hope to prove that we can bring in science into the law, that we can change the way that the law views those with disorders, so that we can start researching how different medications affect different kinds of neurodivergence.”

“I visited some other schools but there was something in Detroit Mercy because I went back to the campus 16 times,” she said. “I love that they were very similar to my charter school. When I needed confirmation or reassurance, the admissions were always there to help me immediately. It reminded me of my charter school a lot because they were really willing to work with the student as you are.”

And even though she’s graduating from ULA, it’s a good bet she’ll still be spending plenty of time there, helping the students and doing whatever else she can. Her mother, Layal Boussi, is the principal at ULA, and her two younger sisters, Lana and Laya, are both students there.

“They’re both going to be charter school graduates, just like I am,” she said. “That makes me proud.”