BUE

Sawdaq Loay

As an Iraqi citizen, my story began since I was very young.

Having left the country when I was still 3 years old had a great impact on my life; I mean, who wouldn’t be sad to depart their home or leave their relatives behind at such an early age.

I moved to Yemen, a foreign country which I knew nothing about, not the culture, not the geography, not even the dialect which I had so much trouble to adapt to. During those 9 years I had some problems to adapt, but with my parents’ and kind-hearted people’s support I could adapt in less than two years; working my way up till I became the best student in class –El7amdulellah- I’ve stayed like that throughout the 9 years I spent there. What pushed me the most was the encouragement I received from my parents, the principal and the owner of the school I was in, as when we were about to move to another city, he met with my parents and asked them if we could stay if not absolutely necessary which made me more determined to work even harder; and I did.

That chapter ended and yet another chapter began when I moved to Egypt back in 2003 when I had my vision set on a certain goal. By the time I took a careful look around me, I realized that I wanted to do something that makes a difference! I want to make the world a better place; the question of “How?” was yet to be answered.

After finishing my secondary education I had to choose which faculty I am going to join and that’s when my eyes were set on computer science. I mean, what better way is there to change the world than through technology? Wasn’t that already proven since the early 2000s when technology started advancing and everything became more and more computerized?

During the first two years I used to develop applications from scratch even in my own free time just as a practice. Which made the practical parts a whole lot easier than they used to be; after all, practice makes perfect, right?

After the first two years, it became clearer and clearer to me that I wanted to join the core specialization of computer science; there was that something that fascinates me about the complexity of what computer scientists do, how they create solutions from scratch to make other people’s lives much easier than it used to.

So, I joined the specialization and passing it was no easy task (keep that in mind) as you have to work each day harder than the day before to reach your goal; then I decided to join the Microsoft Student Partners program in which I had to self-learn in order to share my knowledge to other students in universities across the country. That was the perfect opportunity to push me forward in learning aspects and to bypass my fears (stage fright) by conducting sessions in front of 150+ audiences.

After finishing my senior year and finalizing my graduation project on which I worked very hard under the supervision of Dr. Abeer Hamdy who helped me a lot throughout my four years at the university I was oddly lost; as a foreigner it’s hard to find a company that will hire you and provide a work permit while you’re still a fresh graduate, but that did not stop me (after a while)

lost felt strange, till I went to the university to receive my Bachelor’s degree from Loughborough; that was when I bumped into an old Dr. who had taught me before and asked me if I wanted to join the Web development team which I agreed to. After multiple interviews I was accepted and admitted to spend my first 9 months as an employee which I enjoyed very much; especially that we had developed a whole new website for the university.

When those 9 months were over I was supposed to travel to my home country to receive a callback and issued the work permit which was not accepted because the job description required no experience, so why bring a foreigner when an Egyptian can occupy such a position? (such a bummer)

I had to wait for the perfect opportunity when a friend of mine had anonymously applied my CV to Microsoft’s CSR department (corporate social responsibility). That’s where my dream came closer!

When I received the call I was very excited and arranged the interview as soon as I could; I was surprisingly un-stressed during my interview which I passed. I was literally jumping up and down when I received the news that I was accepted.

After all the hard work, the prayers, my parents’ support and my brother’s comments which annoyed and pushed me forward (peace be upon his soul) I was finally in a place where I can say I’m making a difference.

Today I am the technical lead of the citizenship department in Microsoft Egypt; this is where I can help NGOs and provide them with sustainable solutions free of charge to help and make a change in the community, to provide trainings/exams and even to provide jobs! Today, I can say I’m satisfied with what I am doing.

So, what is your dream? What are your priorities? What is the thing you want to do the most?! None of those questions’ answers have to be specific, even a general answer such as “I want to make a change” will suffice and your actions will drive you to that goal!