Youssif Zaghwani M. Omar, PhD in Linguistics

From the first day I joined AIU I felt that the outcome would be fruitful, and study would be enjoyable. My guess is right! During my study at AIU, I had a lot of expertise in different areas of knowledge. As advisers change according to the phase and the classes, I have learned different schools of learning and various subject.
I have always been interested in doing the assignment because they have been prepared professionally to cover various aspects of learning. Writing from 10 to 15 pages about a book in Phase II, for example, motivates me to read various books, understand main ideas, and analyze the authors’ perception and trends. Later, I write a paper, in which I use my own voice and style to explain the original author’s perception. This assignment, in which I read and wrote about five books, was very beneficial. I used my perception to understand the readings, and I used my writing skills to sum up main ideas.
The courses in my doctoral program have professionally been organized in four phases. Each phase complements the other. The knowledge acquired is accumulative, and I felt very restful in accomplishing each assignment in each phase. Phase I starts with a questionnaire, which analyzes my personality and academic achievement and goals. This questionnaire helps in identifying my career and ability to pass the program, so it was followed by a portfolio about my present, past, and future career. I consider Phase I important as it broke the ice between me and my advisers and the program itself. Phase I was like the first step to reach the peak and finish my program. The assignments were prepared academically to serve the other phases.
I benefited from Phase I, so Phase II was easier than the previous phase. I find Phase II interesting because of reading a diversity of books and writing about each one in different style and mode. This phase enhances my learning and comprehension about reading and writing. This phase is a good introduction to Phase III, in which I submitted a dissertation proposal. As I need literature review to fulfill the dissertation in Phase III, I benefited from Phase II.
As I was not quite familiar with online courses, I found it a challenge at the beginning. Because of the handout and the explanation of how to submit each assignment in the Web provided, I could successfully tackle this challenge. The Web is prepared professionally and contains almost all resources I needed to finish the three phases. The online library, for example, contains thousands of books and journals; I used some of them in writing the proposal and the dissertation in the future. Submitting the assignment was easy, and different ways for submitting are available, too. Now, I have no difficulty in using the Web and submit electronically.
In fact, I have no words to express my gratitude to my tutor Jaime Rotlewicz. He is very cooperative, understanding, and considerate. I really appreciate his quick responses either through phone or e-mail when I encountered a problem, namely at the beginning of the program. I really appreciate the work of my advisers, too. I have no space to mention all of them, but I have to send special thanks to Dr. Lucia Gorea. She kept encouraging me and provided me with valuable advice for each assignment I submit. Her encouragement and support was a great aid to reach Phase IV.
To sum up, the whole program is wonderful and very beneficial. I hope I can continue in post-doctorate program or do another PhD in another subject. I hope someday I work as a member staff at AIU. I feel so proud to be a member at AIU and to get a degree of PhD from this great university. Of course, I will encourage other students to join AIU. Thank you very much.