My Intent to Obtain a Degree in Navigation Systems

My name is Hussein Ali Hadi. I was born in Baghdad in 1992. Two years after I was born, my parents got divorced. It was a very hard situation for my mother to raise me and my younger sister without having anybody helping her. I enrolled in elementary school and completed it with excellence despite the social difficulties my family faced.

In 2004, during high school, I witnessed difficult circumstances that the country experienced, one of which is economics. This actually forced me to start working while I was studying to help my mother tacking care of the family. During that period, Iraq become open to the outside world which made me know the extent of the world's development in various aspects where I began to think the need to excel in my studies to ensure a better future for me and my family. Having a good education is the best weapon to overcome life in its difficulties and fight conditions and overcome them to achieve my goals and make my family proud of me. I graduated from high school with an average of 84% which was a big step forward to pursuit my education in the university. That average helped me to be accepted in one of the great universities in Iraq, the University of Technology / Electromechanical Engineering Department. Here I started a new phase in my life where I had to reconcile work, study, and university life, which is an outlet for cultures exchange and experiences between the students. Such experiences helped me to form a stronger personality and gave me the ability to create a newer social connections and relationships. This encouraged me even more to be the best in my class which lead to rank second on my class for the first year in college. Despite life difficulties, the encouragement from my family, my friends, and my teachers made me make a greater effort in my study, where I eventually ranked first on my class in the second year, third year, and the fourth year of my college study.

In 2014, I graduated from the university with a bachelor’s of science degree, BSc. in Electromechanical Engineering / Electromechanical Systems. In addition to that, I ranked first on my department and second on my university. This achievement gave me the chance to get a job in the same year, 2014, and start working in the same university and the same department from which I have graduated. The new job helped me a lot to ease my life and made my family's financial situation become way better. I started planning for a new life full of hope and enthusiasm to serve my community through the university in scientific planning and future academic achievements that benefit everybody.

During my work in the department, my social and academic personality began to form through the nature of the work in terms of working with my professors and coworkers at the university on one hand and teaching the students on the other hand. I began to develop myself in the field of communications and digital systems through my work in the laboratories and various research papers I have read. But, my journey doesn't stop at this.

My focus on my studying and the graduation achievement made me feel that I should get a higher degree in the same field. However, due to my financial situation I was not able to do that unless someone will pay for my study and research expenses. This led me to try to apply for a government scholarship, but nothing was available due the oil prices drop followed by the financial crisis that hit the country after 2014. However, that did not stop me from keep looking for any chance that makes me getting a higher degree. One day, a professor who I work with suggested to me to apply for a foreign scholarship, so I used Google to search for any higher studies foreign scholarships available for Iraqis, one of the results was Fulbright! I want to get master’s degree related to avionics, which is the path to develop my academic skills within the same specialization of the scientific branch I work at in the department. My branch is called Navigation and Guidance Engineering, this branch was established in the same year I got hired by the university. It has low number of faculty members that have the same specialization as the branch name indicates.

Completing a Master of Science degree in navigation systems is my desire and interest. Fulbright will provide me with important opportunity of cultures exchange and experiences, to form social and academic relationships with foreign students and to study in the best universities in the world. It will be hard at the beginning to be away from my family, but I am an adaptive person, I can accept different ideas and live with different communities/cultures other than mine. After completing the master's degree, my country needs me as it needs anyone with the ability to help rebuild and develop the community. Returning back home with a higher degree is my goal to help my country. Transferring my new experience will help my community a lot. It will also help my department to have another faculty member who is specialized in Navigation and Guidance Engineering.

To summarize, getting a master's degree is very important for my academic development, my community development, and culture exchange. Fulbright scholarship opportunity will help me achieve my goal in serving my community and make my family proud of me.