International students at Lake Land College
Zadeek Yaldo Hettan
Kerstin Allen Campus & Features Editor
Issue date: 11/1/06 Section: Features
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students into its midst and the Navigator
was curious to find out what motivates students
from foreign countries to study in America, how
they perceive America, and what they can teach us
about their countries.
This month, meet Zadeek Y. Hettan from Baghdad,
Iraq. Zadeek has agreed to illustrate life in his
country before and after the war began in 2003.
The twenty-five-year-old student came to LLC
in May 2006 to study civil engineering technology.
He had obtained an Associates Degree in
Surveying from the college in Baghdad in 2001
and his dream was to continue his education at
Baghdad University. "It is the best university in
the country." Zadeek said. That dream was destroyed by cruel politics. Hettan
said that Saddam Hu-ssein and his followers
were forcing Iraqi citizens to join his political party,
the Ba'ath and serve in his military or risk being
executed.
Hettan was approached, but he declined. He told
the Navigator that he simply did not believe in that
system. Moreover, even though he and his parents
were born in Baghdad, they are of Armenian descent,
and hold Kurdistan's citizenship, which makes them
exempt. Kurdistan is a region in northern Iraq ruled
by Kurds, and it got its autonomy from Saddam's
government right after the Gulf War in 1991. Now
it has its own federal government, which it makes
it a federal region in Iraq since the new constitution
was written and approved by the Iraqi people
in October 2005.
Nevertheless, from then on Hettan was treated
with hostility and suspicion, and was even threatened
by the college's president, but he did not back
down. At the beginning of his studies Hettan was at
the top of the list of students who qualified for the
university, but after this incident he suddenly found
himself at the bottom and out of the running. He
was crushed.
Next, the war began. After the invasion, clean-up
work and restoration required skilled workers. The
U.S. military set up in the presidential palace where
they accepted applications. Hettan heard about it
from a friend and decided to give it a shot. "I was
going to apply for a job as a surveyor." While leaving
through the palace's gate, another man came up