Master's Student Mashaael Alwashmi Explains Why SDSU Is First Choice

My name is Mashaael Alwashmi and I am from capital city Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I graduated from Princess Nora University, which has the largest female campus in the world. My undergraduate major was Home Economics that includes subjects about home, family, and children. I decided to join the (KASP) King Abdullah Scholarship Program that offers full funds for distinguished students because I graduated from PNU with honors.

I chose San Diego State University in particular for many reasons. First, my brother, uncle, and cousin were in San Diego seeking their education, and they highly recommended San Diego as a nice city for studying and for families. Second, SDSU was one of my first choices because they ranked high, especially the College of Education. Also, the Child and Family Development department has the most suitable master’s program that is an actual extension to my undergraduate major. In fact, the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia added the program to their list for recommended and approved programs all over the world on: http://ru.mohe.gov.sa/default.aspx

I started planning to apply when I was in the American Language Institute (ALI) at SDSU by learning about the application requirements and completing them one by one. During the language-learning period I was able to earn an English level sufficiency certificate, qualify my undergraduate degree certificate, take the GRE exam, and write the required essays. After sending the required documents, I was extremely happy to hear from the department as per the scheduled timeline they had provided telling me that I was accepted in the Fall 2013.

I have loved the program so much. During the first semester, I had the pleasure of working with many people with different backgrounds. I especially loved the courses CFD 634, CFD 660, CFD 590 as well as ED 690. Additionally, the program was flexible to the extent that I was able to take some undergraduate classes that I really enjoyed and learned from. This gave me a whole new perspective in this filed and made me interested more and more about children's problems and developmental challenges. I look forward to the courses I will take this year that will assist me in writing my thesis on children’s school readiness in Saudi Arabia. I cannot wait to apply the knowledge I have gained from this master’s program in my country.

My goal is to enhance the invaluable experience of working with children during my studying in SDSU. I want to work with the SDSU Children’s Center and learn the successful ways that they follow, and apply them to my future children’s center in Saudi Arabia. Also. I will back to work at PNU as a lecturer, so I get the opportunity to transfer the great information and knowledge from the CFD master’s program to the Early Childhood Department at PNU.