Reprinted from the Fall 2011 edition of InterCom

Achieving a doctoral degree is extremely difficult to accomplish; it takes years of dedication and long hours of work to reach such an esteemed level of education. Now, imagine how much more difficult it would be to achieve this degree in a foreign country using your second language. First year Ph.D. student Hassan Zamir, whose native language is Bengali, is attempting to achieve just that.

"From my childhood my family kept me in an environment to learn English more easily. They have done it with a thought that this might help me to do well in my career," he said.

Zamir, a native of Dhaka, Bangladesh, earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in information science and library management at the University of Dhaka. After completing his master's degree with a 3.95 CPA, he decided to come to the United States to achieve another academic milestone by getting his Ph.D. in library and information science.

He decided on the University of South Carolina because he felt the school was a good fit for his research interests. "Information retrieval and digital libraries are two areas I want to focus on more," Zamir said.

"I want to be a teacher someday in a library school," said Zamir. Since Iibrary and information science is not a huge field in his home country, he wants to establish himself here in the U.S so he can give the talented students from Bangladesh the opportunity to come to the America to do research with him.

Aside from his academics, Zamir is a member of the Bangladesh Student Association at USC, an organization made up of 53 Bangladeshi students who frequently come together to celebrate holidays and practice their religion.

"Social networking has helped me meet Bangladeshi students," he said. They are also creating a soccer league which has teams represented by other international student organizations on campus.