Is education necessary to achieve our dreams?

So, let us ask the question again? Is education really necessary to achieve our dreams? I would say that it does as it gives us the literacy which serves as a platform for us to acquire wealth.

We all know of the success stories of past businessmen who started as cobblers, plantation workers, tailors, and through sheer hard work, they are now millionaires many times over. What do you think was their secret to success? These people worked long hours, saved a lot of money, and built their fortunes by riding the boom of a particular industry. They also bought some land which became very valuable in later years of life! Although they did not study corporate or business strategy, they succeeded because they had a knack of knowing just what business to be in. But these are stories of the past. 

In today's knowledge economy, you need to be at the least a computer literate to keep up with this fast-changing business world. Also you need to have a wide horizon of thinking process.  You need to be a well rounded individual. How can you achieve this? a university degree may or may not teach you these factors as it all depends on the way the subjects are taught in the various universities.  However all the universities around the world are changing the delivery of the various subjects to allow students to think on their own?  They basically teach you how to think and not what to think.  Also the advent of all the search engines (yahoo, google, etc) made it easy to search for materials and most of the libraries are now electronic to benefit the young and the not so young learners. 

Having said this, I think that it is important to have a dream, as much as it is important to be able to covert the dream into reality; the only way to do this is by studying and having a good university degree to be a weapon that protect us from falling behind.  The magic number of hours to excel in something is 10000 hours of hard work, this can be achieved by both studying and working at the same time in the field that is as close to our dream as possible.  This last fact is not something that I had dreamt up; it came from the book that is still on the best sellers list for over a year its called “Outliers”.  So lets all be outliers to achieve our dreams.

Artistic Inclination

So, are you an Artist

My nephew is 17 years old and he is a fantastic artist. Show him anything and he will draw it. Unfortunately that artistic inclination will disappear as he will never get enough training from school to make it better. 

Our schools use the one and only hour per week art lesson for anything but art, if an Arabic teacher needed an hour extra, she or he will take that class, and so will the social studies teacher. I am not saying that all other subjects are not important, of course they are, but art is important as well, we might have a Michael Angelo or a Picasso in our class room, but because we do not give them enough grounding, they will unfortunately never be.

While counseling students, I get those future Michael Angelos' who want to do Art at University level, so the first question is, “where is your portfolio”? The mouth drops, and a big sigh occurs, “what is a portfolio”? Well, most art schools require seeing the student’s art work, before he or she are accepted. The art work has to show creativity as well as talent, it has to show the students inner feelings, why this particular style was chosen, and who inspired him or her to draw. Normally 20 pieces of artwork are requested, some of them will need to be from sketched pieces until the final art piece. Of course, some of the more respectable universities want to see if the student had entered a competition or participated in an exhibition, and the list of requirements goes on.

I do not want to talk about the industry behind the artists (canvas, paint, pencils, brushes, etc). I looked around many bookshops and stationary stores to buy art equipment for my children, what I found are either very expensive or really primitive.

I am not saying that a young artist in our world will never become a good artist, he or she may well become an artist, and a brilliant one too, even without any training from the schools.  We would have many more artists than what we have now if we trained them well. A message to all teachers: “leave that lonely hour a week alone and let our kids use the brush and draw”.

The same concept can be applied to music, film, video production, graphic design and the like.  All of these subjects are not taught in our schools.  But these are important aspects of our lives.  How many hours people spend in front of TV or go to the movies? read books and magazines, decorates ones home, One can easily say that its many hours in a day. I  would love to see a movie produced by a local kid, and the same movie recognized in an international setting.  But these are my dreams!!

For inquiries on art courses, contact me on suad@ezone.ae

Ten years and still standing high

This year is our tenth anniversary, and reflecting on our history we feel that the accomplishments were tremendous. To mention the least, we will start with students, seminars, exhibitions, forums, social media, and last but not least our magazine.

We managed to counsel over 1200 students a year, we managed to find scholarships to most of our students. Looking at the students and their whereabouts sheds light on our commitment to education around the gulf and the fulfillment of our business plan. We said from day one that we will be counseling students from the whole gulf area, and that is what we did. We work with students from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. We also worked with the cosmopolitan population living in the Gulf, so we had Indians, Philippines, Pakistanis, British, Srilankans, South Africans, Kenyans, Yemenis, and you name it from the nationalities living in the UAE, we had worked with them.  We had attended weddings of our students, seen their lovely kids, visited them in their homes, attended their relatives’ funerals as well as their illness; they touched our lives and we touched theirs. We had two of our students die prior to departure! that was really sad.

We participated in over 30 agent workshops, 200 career fairs, 70 exhibitions, had 7 own exhibitions and spoke in many school and college seminars about study abroad. We also attended many women conferences, entrepreneurial conferences, environmental conferences, quality groups, education conferences and so on. We were so active that we had few TV interviews by CNN, BBC, and Eqtisadia. We also participated in interviews on education, replied to surveys for various subjects on education, participated in PHD studies, were the subject of PHD studies for 5 students, and wrote many articles for newspapers and magazines. We have our own blog on education and participate in other people blogs about the same field. Basically over the past ten years we spent over 16 hours a day dealing in the same subject, and hoping to affect people’s lives the same way education affected our lives.

We became members of many groups and forums, and we had extensively used social media to enlighten students’ lives. Our students follow us on twitter, and also like our page on facebook, but are personal friends on the director’s facebook. We share with them our happiness and our disgust. We talk to them about their trouble, and wish them well on their birthdays, they comment on our pictures and are our strongest advocates when some of their relatives want to have a similar experience as they did.

Over the years we published a magazine per year, and printed 10000 copies of which. These copies where distributed to students and members of the public alike. We are now preparing for ‘World of Education™ – Volume Two’! The main focus of this version will be art, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as we in the gulf region are emphasizing these few subjects in schools in our many education reforms strategies. 

A section of the book will be a tribute to Christchurch, to pay our respects to the students as well as the manager (Brian Taylor) of Kings School who died during the major earthquake that hit Christchurch in February 2011. Funds will be raised from the sale of the “Love Christchurch” badge, which is sold in the Education Zone office.

We would love for you to be with us to celebrate education, to enlighten our students as well as their parents.

On an empathetic side, we established a charity organization called “kill poverty by education” that is working so hard to find funds for the deprived ones. Our mission statement is almost complete and we are ready to tackle the next decade with more achievements.

Education abroad, Visas and Arab spring

I work with students from around the globe, even though we work from little Dubai, but we get the students virtually as they find us from the various social media or though the famous Google, or just by writing "study abroad", the chart below shows where our students come from:

Of course we also send them around the globe, as we try to tailor make their education so it fits their budget and their choice.  Sometime we even try to direct them to a country that will eventually provide them with a nationality if they behave themselves and become a good citizen in that country.  Of course we are not really immigration consultants, as immigration is negative and lowers the moral, but education is positive and someone knows that one day he or she are coming back and benefit their own countries by applying what they studied, if so happen that they loved the country that they studied in, and want to continue to live in it, then we facilitate that too. The chart below shows which countries we have sent the students to:

However since last year, with the advent of Arab Spring, we are finding it very difficult to place students abroad, or even to bring them to Dubai,  especially if the students come from those countries that are uprising.  Not saying here that I have an opinion about that, all I am saying is that some people's actions had ruined the chances of others that are aspiring to be doctors, dentists, engineers, social workers, psychologist and so on.  Not only that, some students who have great grades, and are actually in the top ranks have not received their scholarships, because a member of their family had participated in the up-rise so they were tagged as being with the opponents. 

The countries that grant visas to students have also changed their visa rules, some students who have come from countries that were in the "easy to get visas" side have flipped to "very difficult to get visas" side. While other countries had benefited both financially and from changing visa rules.

My question here is, should countries alter their visa rules to prevent people from traveling for the simple, teeny weeny reason of being vocal? or for trying to kick their presidents out of the 40 years ruling?  So are we saying that countries like USA doesnt want people that try to ask for simple rights? and if so, then does this mean that the people in USA do not have these same simple rights? does this sound correct?

All of this may sound gibberish to you, but to me its a problem that I need to find a solution for, as to me Education comes first and no one should prevent a person from studying especially if the student is a genuine student.

Wake up universities and colleges, your governments are having a pact against you, and you must rally to prevent these stringent visa rules, or you will end up having seats without bums (we call a student a bum on seat by the way) and classes that are half empty.

When people hate each other,

I had a great discussion with a person who is hoping to be a Noble prize candidate after 6 years for her work with charities, and having just established her charity organisation, she is a very proud person.  When she explained to me what she does in her charity work for the various countries that are hit by poverty and crises I can see her face glowing with passion, one cannot but notice how loves what she does, and to her people are people, not male:female, and the other classifications that we keep on hearing about these days.

Charity work in my opinion is like fighting for ones own country to be the best, people around the globe are passionate about their countries and love to see them ranked for best cities to live in, highest economic GDP, best environmental practices, highest quality of life, the happiest country and so on from these ranks that someone in his or her wisdom come up with and of course earned money by doing it.

Also if someone notices that his or her country are in ruins, and tries to correct that either by demonstrating or being vocal in international organizations,  then this person is also a person that should be like the friend that is hoping to be a Noble prize winner, she is doing something for people in poverty hit countries, and this one is doing something for his or her own country to avoid or remove a compelling circumstance.

However, my discussion here has nothing to do with Charity work or with Fighting for ones country.  My discussion here is why do we hate each other? why do we put people in compartments, and think that we are better than them for some reason or the other.  The reasons can be religious, class, monetary, education level, being a male or a female, and so on.  At the end of the day we are all made from the same material, flesh and blood, and we all have the right to live and share, we all possess different qualities; ok, someone might be dumb, or stark stupid, but doesnt preclude this person from the right to be loved? or does it?

Why am I saying this? I don't want to be obscure! let me admit it!  the other day I just happen to check the tweets of a friend, and what I saw was terrible, how people hate her for saying what she believes is true, the amount of hatred-ism in their replies to her tweets just shows that the country she is struggling to correct is not ready to be ranked internationally, as its people are hating each other, and its people are becoming very sectarian to the extent that killing is considered ok for them.  So should I start hating my friends just because they have a different religion? or a different sect of a religion? I have friends who belong to at least 10 religions, and more than 30 sects of these religions, I love them and care for them, and will not be happy if I know that they are having family troubles, or ill, poor, failed exams, or any of the mishaps that happen to normal human beings like you and I?

I am not saying that I am different, or I don't feel strongly about my beliefs, in actual fact I do feel strongly for my beliefs, but this doesn't mean that I have to be in the circle of those that share my beliefs? its like telling me that I have to eat chocolate for the rest of my life; yes I do love chocolates, but try to eat it day in and day out, one will soon be sick of it.  If you remember the story of Zorba the Greek when he dug a hole in the ground, filled it with cherries, went inside it and ate all those cherries, he suddenly felt sick and would not eat cherries for the rest of his life.  Cherries or chocolate are the same as your circle of friends, you cannot have them in the same shape, gender, or school of thought, otherwise innovation will never occur.

Call me an idiot, but you cannot call me a hater.

To be thanks full

Today is my turn to be thankful. I am thankful of being healthy, I am thankful of having nice kids, and a lovely husband who loves me, I am thankful of having my sisters and my brother who adore me, I am thankful for having a mum like mine who is always there supporting me, I was thankful and still am for my dad (PBUH) who raised me to possess strong morals and strong love for education, I am thankful for my team at work who are helping make Education Zone one of the best study abroad companies in the gulf, I am thankful for being able to write, I am thankful for being so knowledgeable in Technology, I am thankful for having this circle of friends who care about me and support me in times of need, I am thankful for having such wonderful daughter and son in law who are making my son and daughter happy, I am extremely thankful for God and all the great stuff that I have around me.

I am thankful for having a roof over my head, I am thankful for living in Green community that has such lush greenery and a great swimming pool, I am thankful for being able to support people in need and I am thankful for being able to have streams of thoughts in my head at any time of the day.  I am thankful that I can pull myself up when I fall, and feel so auspicious when I need to.

Why am I thankful? I visited a family today, who had a great loss, two of their children died in a fatal accident, the mother is on a wheel chair and the father had many fractures but he is fine now.  The woman is so positive, still works full time, has extensive physiotherapy sessions and still waiting for the operation that will correct her damaged spinal cord. She also started a business from home and the stuff she makes are so delicious and healthy.  People like this amaze me, as even though they had a sad incident, they are able to pull themselves together, rise from their trouble and emerge into stronger people who compel you to raise your hats off to greet them.  These are the type we should meet everyday as they make us think of our stupidity and negativity and try to remove it from our silly heads. 

My sisters always tease me as I am a frequent goer to weddings and funerals, also I love visiting sick people, they wonder why I do this.  I love weddings as they are a sign of harmony and love. I go to funerals as the family of the deceased person need us to be with them in times like this, and visiting the sick provide them with a shot of positivity especially if we go to them and crack jokes and spread our warmth.

Please blog readers, do this for my sake and try to make someone happy. 

Applying for PHD Studies

Any one can correct me if you feel that I am not saying the correct thing.
this is what I always ask my students: why do you need a PHD? unless you want to teach or you want to be a minister? or just to have a self fulfilling prophecy, Then I don’t think there is  a point?

Please don’t take me wrong, PHD is a lonely planet, you have to work at it for 5 years or more , earn basically next to nothing, and at the end you may add new knowledge or not. The acronym after your name is nice, but to get there it’s a heartache.  However if you want I can still do something about it.  prepare a proposal and I can see what you I can do.

PHD admission is a cumbersome process, and we need to be extra careful of how we approach the professor to be able to gain admission.  In general PHD committees meet either once a month, two months or three months, depending on the strength of the university and the number of applications they obtain.  Also choosing the subject has to be specific and matches the research interests of the professor that you are going to write to. 

The proposal need not be long, it has to be comprehensive,  concise and smart, also remember that PHD is like getting married to someone, as you will live day and night with it for at least five years, so you are better off choosing a subject that you have passion for rather than a subject that is relevant in this day and age.  Passion gives you strength to persevere. 

Many universities that are recommended by various scholarship bodies will accept a low GPA.  And also they do not have an intakes other than the one at the beginning of the year, so people wanting to get into a PHD programme have to be very careful when to apply, and if they apply they must have the patience to wait for their acceptances. 

I laugh at times when someone rings me or email me and says that he or she has to get a PHD admission in two weeks! its like I have a magic wand and when I flash it I will get them the admission.  People forget that they have to have so many requirements to be able to enter a top university, as at the end of the day the value of the PHD is only when we introduce new knowledge and we do this in a university that is very strong in the research field.

It is very important to be published, writing is a skill that one needs to master before embarking on any PHD study.  Of course I am not hampering your enthusiasm, if you want a PHD then choose well, and know what you are getting yourself into.