My name is Muaz AlBaghdadi, I’m 23 years old. I am from Ghouta and I left Syria in 2018. One of the most challenging things I faced leaving Syria and going to Turkey, was that I did not have any formal papers to prove where I was coming from. When I finally became of legal age to get an ID card in Ghouta, we were under siege, so I left with no ID and no passport.
At first, my family and I moved from Ghouta to Northern Syria, then I decided to leave for Turkey to pursue my education. I wanted to study Software Engineering. I took the YOS exam and was accepted into a 2-year program. My family did not want to leave Syria, so I was on my own, and tuition was expensive. I applied to the Karam scholarship and I got accepted.
It was very difficult to adjust at first. I did not know the language, I did not have any friends, and to add to it, we had to switch to online learning because of COVID-19. I was able to overcome most of these challenges, I just graduated from the 2-year program and going onto the 4-year program.
Due to the fact that I was on my own a lot, I was constantly teaching myself and bettering my software skills. I got to a point where my cohort would come to me for any questions they have, and were shy to ask the professor. That’s also how I started making friends.
One of the projects I worked on and am very proud of is an app I designed. Our assignment was to come up with a system in which citizens would send their environmental complaints to the appropriate person in the government. So, we created an app where they can take a photo, write a description, and send it to the person in charge to solve the problem.
The project was so successful that the professor decided to propose it to the Turkish government. They loved the idea and now we are finalizing the project. Every person who worked on the project was Syrian, and we are very proud of it.
Now we are working on a similar app but for the private medical sector, in which patients could upload their questions and concerns for any medical consultation. All of these projects we’ve been working on were for school credits, so I had to pick up an extra job to pay some bills and other expenses I couldn’t afford. I mastered WordPress on my own, and started as a freelance web designer. I took on big projects all over the world like Turkey, Germany, and Syria.
For the future I have a 12-year-plan. Now that I am heading into a 4-year program for software engineering, I am hoping to pursue a masters in Artificial Intelligence after, and then later in the future hopefully a PhD in the same field.
