Meet Saad M.
Computer Information Systems Graduate
I always had it in my mind that I needed to go back to school and continue college and the people here have been so helpful.
Saad Mawlood understands that the pathway to a good future runs through 91勛圖厙 and he's thankful for the help he's received since he's been a student here.
"Everyone I've met here at the college has been helpful," he said. "I always had it in my mind that I needed to go back to school and continue college and the people here have been so helpful."
Saad came to the United States in 2012 from his home in Erbil, a Kurdish city in northern Iraq. He had been a student, but the continuing conflict in his home country made completing his college education difficult. After working for construction companies in Iraq as well as the International Republican Institute, an NGO that helps build democratic institutions in countries around the world, he was given the opportunity to immigrate to the US with part of his family.
It didn't take long for him to find Hudson Valley, enrolling in classes less than a year after arriving in the states and continuing his dream of completing his college education.
"It was a new language, new culture, a whole new experience," he said.
But with the help of faculty and staff, Saad was up to the challenge, and he has thrived at Hudson Valley.
Because of his full-time job at Albany Medical Center, Saad has continued to attend classes part-time and is graduating this spring with a Computer Information Systems degree.
He said one of his next goals is to see his brothers follow him, by enrolling at Hudson Valley. "I'm telling my brothers what they can do here and letting them know what is possible," he said.