Arts and Technology Student Overcomes Obstacles to Earn Degree

Life set up several roadblocks on Ruba Qewar’s academic path — enough to make her want to give up. But she overcame each of them en route to earning her degree in arts and technology from The University of Texas at Dallas this week.

Qewar said that growing up Christian in Jordan was not easy, but she enjoyed a loving home with her parents and five siblings. Her father, a pastor, would often bring home Atari games for her and her siblings, but Qewar was always the best at them.

She graduated from high school in 1999 and enrolled at Mu’tah University in Jordan. But Qewar quickly regretted taking a full course load that she failed to take seriously. She left school the same year and returned home dejected and despondent.

Her parents pushed her out of her slump by suggesting a vocational degree as an administrative assistant — not something Qewar ever saw for herself, but she was an adult with bills to pay.

She and her family immigrated to the United States in 2002 and registered for classes at Collin College. She claimed her optimism was high; she felt “like a dreamer.” But then her father was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer.

“Before I could spend enough time with him, he passed away. That year was one of the hardest years in my life,” Qewar said. “I couldn’t focus on my studies. When I looked at my transcript, all my dreams shattered again.”

With her father gone, it fell to Qewar and her younger sister to support the rest of the family. Both were working two jobs, and at the age of 22, she thought she was too old to earn a degree that would open the doors to her dream life.

“I hit rock bottom. I felt like I was a failure — a loser. But my mom told me again to keep trying,” Qewar said. “She took me to Richland College, and I registered for classes.”

Though she wanted to pursue an arts degree, Qewar settled on web development, not letting her lack of coding knowledge dissuade her. She continued working two jobs throughout the first semester. When her grades arrived, she was more than a little anxious.

“The moment I checked my transcripts, I couldn’t believe it. After failing at least twice in school, my GPA was a 4.0,” Qewar said.

In fact, she took a shine to web design and stuck with it, earning her associate’s degree in 2005.

A Will to Persevere

Qewar entered a tough job market in the mid- to late 2000s. She freelanced to make ends meet while spending her evenings and weekends applying for jobs that paid minimum wage and didn’t appreciate the skills and talents she cultivated in college.

Undaunted, she continued her education via online courses, earning a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Cloverdale College. She used that to leverage a job teaching at a private school. But Qewar wasn’t content. Circumstances with her family left her homeless. She also lost her teaching job.

When Qewar applied to the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication in the fall of 2015, it was not with great spirits. Yes, she would finally be able to study digital art, but getting her hopes up in the past always led to disappointment. If nothing else, her will to persevere held strong.

She took Visual Environment her junior year and immediately clicked with the material. It married her web development skills with her lifelong love of art. She was smitten.

Even at 35, Qewar never felt different from her classmates. They accepted her just like the other students, and the professors empathized with her being closer to their ages. Working full time on top of classes meant she couldn’t participate in the social side of university life.

“She has to be one of the hardest workers I have ever met,” senior lecturer Timothy Lewis said. “More than that, she was a pleasure to converse and work with. She was always willing to help others with critiques and accept constructive criticism.”

'I Took Advantage of Every Minute'

To make the grades, she often stayed up until 1 a.m. grading assignments for her job at the Islamic School of Irving and finishing her own homework. When it came time for her senior capstone project, she doubled down.

“I took advantage of every minute,” Qewar said. “I worked 10 hours a day through spring break when I really should have been relaxing.”

For her project, she wanted to create a game that took place underwater — a sprawling seascape with coral reefs, sunken architecture and undulating sunrays breaking in from the surface. To complete it on time and stay on top of her five classes, she took extra measures.

“I’m much better now at time management and knowing what I can accomplish and what is too much. That’s why I started my capstone a month early and finished early,” she said.

After graduation, she hopes to find a job in animation. Given the chance, she is willing to move across the country and start at the bottom.

She said she will miss the instructors who helped her and understood the limiting circumstances of her situation. Lewis said her tenacity and dedication was surprising and impressive.

“I remember multiple times when I was blown away by the amount of work she was able to achieve on top of her classes and her job,” Lewis said. “She always seemed to find a solution without putting others out. She didn’t make excuses. She just got her work done.”

At the end of a long, arduous road, Qewar can’t help but reflect on the girl first stepping out of her childhood home and wish she could offer some advice:

“Stop being distracted by the worldly things. We have a saying in Arabic: ‘The one who lost what he had cannot give it to others.’ First establish yourself, then start giving to others,” Qewar said.

As for anyone else thinking they’re too old, she would tell them to “go back in a heartbeat.”