CEE MEng student, Saddiq Nuru, will speak on the importance of students believing in themselves no matter what their situation when he takes the stage at Berkeley's College of Engineering commencement on May 17.
"There is no better stage than graduation to convey that we can achieve anything as Berkeley graduates," says Nuru.
Nuru is half Motswana (from Botswana) and half Nigerian. After attending elementary school and high school in Botswana and Nigeria respectively, he got a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering at Manhattan College. Graduating Cum Laude, he set his sights on the top civil and environmental engineering school in the country—Berkeley!
A positive and determined person, Nuru owes a lot of his success to the Master of Engineering program at the Fung Institute of Engineering Leadership, as well as to his parents, Hauwa and Hameed Nuru, and friends and family who believed in him.
He would like to see more African students at Berkeley.
"Africa is ripe with opportunity and on the forefront of a major change. UC Berkeley should strive to be part of that," says Nuru.
After graduation, Nuru plans to take a job as a management trainee/assistant project manager at a reputable company in the United Kingdom. He hopes to gain the experience he needs to start his own company that will deal with Africa's infrastructure needs.
And he plans to start writing a novel. Because as a Berkeley graduate, Nuru can do anything.