Thanks to a strong foundation laid at Moraine Valley, Hussein Mohd completed his associate degree, successfully transferred to the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and realized his dream of becoming a civil engineer.
Mohd, of Tinley Park, works as a structural civil engineer for the international firm Ardmore Roderick and has been assigned the lead for Chicago’s Jackson Park Mobility Improvement Project, the future site of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.
Crediting Moraine Valley for providing the necessary tools, Hussein set out to accomplish his first goal: overcome the language barrier. When his family moved from Jordan to the United States seven years ago, he did not speak English. He enrolled in the Intensive English Language courses where he learned to speak, read and write the language. From there he was able to start the required math and science courses.
“Moraine Valley armed me with the foundation and the building blocks, plus many technical skills needed for my career, like communications and critical reasoning,” he said.
Hussein acknowledges it was the professionalism and support from staff and advisors that successfully guided his completion at Moraine Valley in 2018 as well as the transfer to UIC, where he graduated in 2020. In addition, his instructors provided supplemental assistance as needed.
“My professors were always there to help me—very professional and never showed they were tired of me asking so many questions,” he said. “Engineering is basically a combination of math and science and it’s very important to have the basics or you’re not going to be able to continue.”
Hussein says with all the support he received, he was confident he would be successful at Moraine Valley, at UIC and beyond.
“You have no idea how thankful I am to Moraine Valley,” he said. “I appreciate the hard work the staff does to motivate students to keep going, and work harder so they can do whatever they want.”
