From Alexandria to Saint Louis

A feature story on Rodaina Mousa

Rodiana+Mousa+stands+on+a+beach+in+her+home+country+of+Egypt.

submitted by Rodiana Mousa

Rodiana Mousa stands on a beach in her home country of Egypt.

Anna Simms, Reporter

Many people come from all over the world to study in the United States every year. One specific person, Rodaina Mousa, is currently an English Literature graduate student at Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville (SIUE). 

Mousa is originally from Egypt, specifically Alexandria, and has been living in the United States for three years now. During her time here, she has made a lot of friends and memories.

Since traveling over to the United States, Mousa has enjoyed a wide variety of new activities that she had never done before. Some of her favorites include sledding, roller skating, making a snowman and apple picking. 

“On my first day working at SIUE I had a department meeting and I was so nervous about being the only new international student/teacher there,” Mousa recalls vividly. “Our office specialist, Tara Huntley, half- jokingly offered to hold my hand into the meeting…It was a moment of hilarious, pure human connection and I still hold it dear until this day.” Mousa laughs.

This past year, Mousa was nominated by the English department and won TA (teacher assistant) of the year at SIUE, which is a huge achievement. By winning this award, she showed how dedicated she is to wanting to pursue a career in English education. “I am hoping to get into a PhD program to eventually become a professor [of English],” Mousa states.

Besides working on her graduate degree, Mousa enjoys crafting, specifically knitting and embroidering. “I really like experimenting with different kinds of art. I have been doing that for as long as I can remember,” Mousa exclaims. “I only started taking it seriously and started my small handmade business in 2013.” 

If you would like to look at some of the artwork that Mousa has done, you can follow her page on Instagram. (@roudisart)