Where did Ilhan Omar grow up and which schools did she attend?

1. Childhood displacement: Mogadishu, Baidoa and a Kenyan refugee camp

Reporting and biographical summaries say Omar was born in Mogadishu and raised in Somalia before her family fled during the civil war; she spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya with her family prior to resettlement in the United States in the mid-1990s ^{[1] [5] [2]}. Some profiles specify being raised in Baidoa alongside her grandfather and father ^[6]. The consistent fact across sources is flight from Somalia and multi-year refugee camp residency in Kenya ^{[5] [2]}.

2. First U.S. homes: Arlington, Virginia, then Minneapolis

Multiple traces of Omar’s resettlement path show the family first arriving in the U.S. in 1995 and living in Arlington, Virginia, before moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they settled and where Omar came of age politically ^{[2] [5] [7]}. Her own campaign and congressional sites recount arriving in the U.S. as a 12-year-old in March 1995 and later moving to Minneapolis as a teenager ^{[2] [8]}.

3. High school: Edison High School, Minneapolis (graduated 2001)

Official congressional biographical records list Edison High School in Minneapolis as Omar’s secondary school, with a 2001 graduation year reported by the U.S. House history/archive pages and the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress ^{[3] [9]}. Local and national profiles reiterate that she completed high school in Minneapolis and became involved in politics as a teenager, interpreting for her grandfather at DFL caucuses ^{[2] [10]}.

4. Higher education: North Dakota State University (BA, 2011)

Multiple fact pages and voter-information sites report that Omar earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies from North Dakota State University in 2011 ^{[4] [3]}. Ballotpedia and other biographical summaries list that B.A. and the 2011 date; congressional archives also note degrees from NDSU ^{[4] [3]}.

5. Supplementary training and fellowships noted in coverage

Beyond degree records, some profiles note Omar was a Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and worked as a community nutrition educator at the University of Minnesota—points that flesh out her post‑secondary trajectory though they are described as professional or fellowship experiences rather than additional formal degrees in the sources provided ^{[6] [11] [12]}.

6. Discrepancies, consistency and what sources don’t say

Sources are consistent on the key elements—born in Mogadishu, refugee camp in Kenya, arrival to the U.S. in 1995, Edison High School in Minneapolis, and a 2011 degree from NDSU—but differ on small emphases (some say she was “raised in Baidoa,” others more simply “born in Mogadishu”) and on narrative detail about exact moves and timing between Arlington and Minneapolis ^{[6] [5] [2]}. Available sources do not mention attendance at any other specific K–12 institutions beyond Edison High School (not found in current reporting).

7. Why these educational details matter politically

Biographies from Omar’s office and institutional records are repeatedly cited by journalists and encyclopedias to establish her refugee-to-citizen arc and qualifications for public office; those same sources (her campaign/House bio, Ballotpedia, congressional archives) provide the specific schools and dates most frequently used in media profiles and official records ^{[2] [4] [3]}. Opponents have sometimes sought to question aspects of her personal history; those challenges typically focus on particulars rather than the broad record that these sources share ^{[13] [4]}.

If you’d like, I can compile a short timeline or extract direct quotes from the House biography, Ballotpedia and BBC pieces cited above to place each school and date side‑by‑side for easy reference ^{[2] [4] [5]}.