"By living abroad, I learned so much about other people and their perspective in life"

As a Civil Engineer, I work within Geotechnical Engineering where I mostly deal with the design of underground structures and infrastructures like the Yellow Metro line in Stockholm which will be built during the upcoming years.
During my first years at university, quite often I thought that people who grow up in Sweden have a greater sense of intelligence. It is a fact that children in western countries have more opportunity to create a bigger perspective on life and its different aspects. Also, since I grew up as a refugee child in a small village in Iran with no rights to go to school, whatsoever, sometimes by blaming on these reasons I felt it was fine to not succeed in some subjects at university and do re-exams.
During summer 2016, through my university I went for an exchange in Singapore and there I met people from all around the world. I learned a lot during my exchange study time, one of the main things that I learned was the new perspective of seeing people and their abilities. I met people from China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, the UK and so on. We studied together and I realized how alike we are. It is not about where you are from, may it be a developed and well-educated society or not, it's actually more about how passionate you are and what your life’s values are. I learned that passionate people are intelligent and talented and I found myself to be one of them.
That little but important realization made my journey much easier. I passed the hardest theoretical courses in Civil Engineering in Milan, like a Legend, and made it all the way to London where I got the opportunity to work with a world-class team for a while.
I’ve been living in Sweden for twelve years now, and I am proud of my achievements and of where I am today. I work with very skilled people who constantly inspire and motivate me into taking on new challenges.
Robabeh Hosseini, 29
Civil engineer