IGTS trainee stories share the experiences of learners who wanted to develop their knowledge and skills despite the demands of work and everyday life, showing how a learning journey can begin with a simple moment that changes a person's view of their professional future.

In the first part of Taghreed's story, we meet a Saudi pharmacist from Madinah who has a strong passion for learning but finds herself trying to balance work, family responsibilities, and her desire to continue her education.

The turning point begins when Taghreed discovers that her colleague Rahaf has managed to continue her studies alongside her work and responsibilities, opening new questions about distance learning and the possibility of continuing her own educational journey.

Stories of Trainees Who Studied With IGTS: Part One

Taghreed is a Saudi woman living in Madinah. She graduated from the College of Pharmacy at King Saud University with an overall grade of Excellent with Honors. She is characterized by the awareness and intelligence that could help her reach the highest academic levels, and a mind like hers possesses a high degree of passion for knowledge and continuous learning. This became the foundation for a new achievement after graduation, unlike many graduates who see graduation as the end of learning and believe that there is no path afterward except work. However, her social responsibilities prevented her from continuing her education regularly because of her morning work schedule at the main hospital in her city, where she had been assigned due to her excellence compared with her peers, as well as her responsibility for her mother, whom she had cared for alone since childhood after the death of her father.

Taghreed was now living through days of uncertainty between her passion and desire to continue learning and her responsibilities. She felt that she had few options in the face of this difficult problem: her work was in the morning, while university study and learning took place at the same time. She found no solution except to surrender to the routine of work, allowing the days to place her dream away inside that routine.

One evening after returning from work, Taghreed was browsing the latest news on Twitter when she was surprised to see that her colleague Rahaf had obtained a Professional Master's degree in Clinical Nutrition and was celebrating the achievement. Taghreed was amazed. What surprised her even more was that the master's degree carried an accreditation from “Stanford International University,” something Taghreed had previously thought impossible.

Her colleague worked alongside her every day and had similar social circumstances. Taghreed was responsible for caring for her mother, while Rahaf was responsible for caring for her husband and infant child. So where had she found the time to achieve something like this?

Taghreed quickly called her while an internal battle of thoughts was taking place. She wondered: Is this real? I hope it is. Or is her friend joking and posting an April Fool's joke? But how could that be when it was August? The phone continued ringing, while her heartbeat seemed to move with it in excitement and eagerness to discover the secret behind this achievement. What happened next? To be continued in Part Two.