A Year in the Fulbright Life: Humam’s Story

For the next year, Fulbright MENA will be showcasing a handful of students as they study in the United States with their new series, A Year in the Fulbright Life. Each month, spotlighted students will share an update as they continue on their Fulbright journey.

July 2019

After a week of hard work, the international students had a chance to meet the famous Auburn eagles. The eagles are the mascots for Auburn University, and they even put it on their student ID cards. A few of my fellow Fulbrighters and I got to take a photo with Nova and Aurea, the two “War Eagles.”

September 2019

This month I went to Atlanta where I attended the Arab festival with my American friends from Auburn University as we introduced them to Arab culture and food. This meant a lot to me because it helped me introduce Arab food to my American friends since there is no Arab restaurant in my city. It also helped me make new friends from different nationalities.

November 2019

I was very enthusiastic to attend, an American football game, for the first time in my life, with my American friend John. The thing that increased my enthusiasm is how much Auburn students and fans love football. I not only enjoyed the game but also enjoyed the amazing band and cheerleading shows that happened before and during the game.

Recently I attended the annual Peace Dinner at Auburn University. It was a great opportunity to test a lot of different food from different countries and be introduced to their culture. What makes it more exciting is that I got to make new friends.

December 2019

On December 14, I attended a dinner with a local family and some other international students. It was a great opportunity to meet more American and international friends and become more familiar with American culture.

January 2020

January was the best month of my life because I attended a Fulbright enrichment seminar in January. There were around 100 Fulbrighters from more than 65 different countries. During this seminar, I was amazed at how Fulbright made the world feel so small as it gathered people from more than 65 countries in one place to build relationships and peace.

Humam is a Fulbright student from Iraq. He is studying Civil Engineering at Auburn University.

Follow updates from Humam and other Fulbright students on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Check back here every month for more updates on the blog and Medium Series to see what Humam does this year!