On this episode of the “‘Cuse Conversations” podcast, El-Baz Abdallah and Budoor Alsaadi discuss their experiences as international Fulbright students participating in the pre-academic program, how they adjusted to life as students in the United States and how they plan on using their research to make a difference.
Each summer, the College of Professional Studies hosts a prestigious preparatory program that helps dozens of international Fulbright Scholars begin their journeys to graduate degrees and research opportunities.
It’s called the Fulbright pre-academic program, and Syracuse University has served as a proud host site for the last 10 years, celebrating the power of both an international education and a cultural exchange.
This year, 44 master’s and Ph.D. students from 20 countries around the world are spending four weeks on campus discovering American culture, learning about life as a graduate student in the U.S. and developing necessary research skills.
The program is operated on campus by the English Language Institute (ELI), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Institute of International Education.
Each morning, the ELI offers English courses and lessons, including how to write a research paper as a graduate student. In the afternoons, cultural presentations and workshops are offered by Syracuse faculty and staff.
These international scholars are connected to a facilitator, a graduate of the pre-academic program who offers advice, guidance and friendship while mentoring these aspiring researchers. On the weekends, participants can take advantage of social field trips to cultural destinations like Niagara Falls and Green Lakes State Park.
El-Baz Abdallah
Before departing for their graduate schools, the students give poster presentations on their research as a potential springboard to the research they will conduct for their capstone project.
“Through my research, I want to see how we can use technology and data information to better people’s lives,” says El-Baz Abdallah, a facilitator from the Comoro Islands who is entering his second year studying data analytics in the School of Information Studies. “When I heard about the pre-academic program, I had been working for some time and hadn’t really thought about going back to school for my master’s degree, but the prestigiousness of the Fulbright program really stood out. There’s such a great impact, not just from the curriculum or the academics but the networking with your fellow scholars. This program was very rigorous, but it was really worth it.”
Budoor Alsaadi
“From how we should be writing up our research and our bibliographies to what it means to do research as a graduate student in the United States, I’ve been really happy with all of the information I’ve learned that helps us adapt to the educational system here,” says Budoor Alsaadi, a native of Iraq who is pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus in environmental engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In this “’Cuse Conversation,” Abdallah and Alsaadi discuss their beneficial experiences as international Fulbright students participating in the pre-academic program, how they acclimated to life as students in the United States and how they plan on using their research to make a difference.
Check out episode 166 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring Abdallah and Alsaadi. A transcript [PDF] is also available.
How has this program helped with your academic transition to graduate school and your cultural adjustment?
El-Baz Abdallah: This program helped me tremendously. It was a big adjustment in terms of the food, the people, the culture and the language. Before I came here, I spoke English every day but had to think about what I wanted to say in French first and then express myself in English. But the College of Professional Studies made our transitions so easy. They set me up with a host family, which is a proud tradition here, and that host family became like a second family for me.
Academically, the program taught me how to directly interact with the professor if we have a question about a lecture or a topic. Back home, you would go to class and take notes, but here, we learned you can actually ask questions of your professor. We learned about office hours where you can go and discuss the topic if there’s something you didn’t understand. These are things I wouldn’t have known about being a master’s student in America were it not for the pre-academic program.
Budoor Alsaadi: There was a lot of new information to learn. There was so much harmony in the program because we’re all international students trying to figure things out while supporting each other. Everyone has been so kind, sweet and caring and willing to help each other out. We’re learning but we’re also having fun.
Another great thing is how many different cultures are in this program. There are students from more than 20 countries here, so we get to learn about their cultures, music, foods and languages. It’s great that Fulbright brings together these people from different backgrounds and experiences to learn from each other.
How do you plan on using your degree to make a difference in the world?
Alsaadi: I want to study water treatment and water pollution, which is a rising problem in my country and all over the world. It’s a problem that needs much more attention, because one day, we’re going to have very limited resources for water. Water technology is a broad field with a lot of opportunities, and I wanted to accelerate my knowledge on this topic at an early age so I can be well-equipped to make a difference in my career.
Most people in Iraq drink groundwater because the water in the rivers has high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), which is expensive to treat and turn into drinking water. I hope that, through my research, I can go back to Iraq and find new technologies and new chemicals that can help with treating TDS. I want to discover a solution that can improve the water quality in my country and help deal with this ongoing and increasing water shortage.
Abdallah: My studies combine data science and artificial intelligence (AI), how to actually build AI models to harness information or data. I’ve been involved with two projects I’m passionate about. One was analyzing the energy consumption trends of New Yorkers to study how low-income people can improve their energy consumption through incentives from the government. Another project was working with my mother, who is a gynecologist back home on Comoros Island, to enhance maternal health care and address the big problem of women losing their baby without knowing it. For my capstone research project, I’m building an AI model to analyze the mother’s and the baby’s heart rates, analyzing the existing data and looking at gaps in the data to ensure that when this happens, we can act so mothers don’t have to move from their rural home to the capital city, or from one island to another, to get medical attention.
Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.
