From Egypt to Iowa: one
engineering graduate student's journey
Ghada Gad, a graduate student
in civil, construction and environmental engineering
(CCE E) at Iowa State University, has had to adjust
to a new environment. Literally. There are plenty of
cultural and societal differences between her homes
in Cairo, Egypt, and Ames, Iowa, but the difference
that really stands out for her is the weather.
The first week Ghada was in Ames last
January, the state of Iowa was experiencing record
lows and lots of snow. Her major professor, Dr.
Jennifer Shane, jokes that, “I half expected her to
buy a plane ticket back to Cairo and tell us that we
were crazy for living in Ames!”
Ghada didn’t leave. She made it through the
winter, and since springtime she has been enjoying
weather in the Midwest much more.
The story of how Ghada came to
be a graduate engineering student at Iowa State
begins about a year before her snowy arrival.
As a master’s student in construction
engineering at American University Cairo, she had a
chance to meet a few members of the Iowa State
University engineering faculty.
She heard through a friend who was studying
in the CCEE department at ISU, that several faculty
members from Ames would be visiting her school in
Cairo. Professors
Jim Alleman (CCEE chair), Fouad Fanous, Amr Kandil,
and Jennifer Shane were participating in an exchange
of information with AUC faculty and to observe
capstone presentations of collaborative efforts
between students from both universities. The
professors were impressed by Ghada. Dr. Shane
recalls the feelings of the group. “Ghada appeared
to be a very intelligent, well spoken, hard working
student and all around someone that we would want at
Iowa State University.”
Ghada did some further investigation and was
impressed by the opportunities she would have at
Iowa State. She accelerated through the remainder of
her program at AUC and received her MS in
construction engineering. Now she is enjoying her
new adventure and is working on a research topic for
her doctoral dissertation.
Ghada’s main area of interest is in examining
the relationship between contracts and risks.
Ghada is impressed by the
similarity between the educational systems here at
Iowa State and at her alma mater, American
University Cairo. Additionally, Ghada is happy to
find fellow Egyptian students also studying at Iowa
State. Being over 6,000 miles from home, it is nice
for her to be able to talk with people who share
similar experiences. Her story illustrates the
diverse backgrounds of Iowa State graduate
engineering students. Engineering graduate students
have the opportunity to develop an invaluable global
network of engineer associates while studying here,
and that is just what Ghada is doing.
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