University of Alberta: Ajay from India talks about studying in Canada
00:00
hi so my name is EJ Peterman well I’m
00:03
from Madeira India that’s the southern
00:06
part of India in the state of Tamil Nadu
00:07
I did my high school in Khartoum Sudan
00:11
which is somewhere in Eastern Africa
00:12
right below Egypt and this is my is
00:15
going to be my fourth year of study at
00:17
the U of A in honors astrophysics I
00:19
applied for universities all around
00:21
Canada and U of A gave me a lot of
00:24
scholarships which was great so for me
00:26
it was personally you know it was a good
00:29
credit for my academic efforts in high
00:32
school and I was also well known that U
00:35
of A has a good tech Institute is it’s
00:37
one of the best so I was certainly
00:39
willing to come over here and see what
00:40
they had so so this is pretty much where
00:44
I work faculty Department of Physics is
00:47
actually on this side and this is pretty
00:50
much my environment I have the planets
00:52
so astrophysics right there and we have
00:54
the Observatory on the fifth floor where
00:56
we usually a visit whenever we have
00:58
solar observing during a noon time and
01:02
yes so it’s my work environment I have
01:05
my professors close by everything else
01:07
is here so it’s perfect I think in terms
01:09
of doing research I think it gives you a
01:11
great opportunity to of course get a
01:14
foothold on what you want for me in
01:16
particular as an international student
01:19
of course you know if I’m moving to
01:20
another university or continuing here at
01:22
the U of A you have to be sure about
01:24
what you want to do and you have to have
01:25
that passion for that so doing research
01:28
it’s a it’s a great way to test your
01:30
abilities it’s also a great place to
01:33
know okay am I fit for this or not or I
01:36
might fit for something else I had to
01:37
apply for the undergrad research
01:38
initiative as well as the international
01:42
student work-study program and once I
01:45
applied for that I got the funds
01:46
successful and
01:48
Here I am doing research so my research
01:51
in particular it’s mainly data
01:53
aggregation what in essence if I were to
01:55
put in layman terms it would be taking
01:58
data from international telescopes on
02:00
online archives and then setting up a
02:02
database for students here and
02:04
professors who can use it and yeah
02:07
that’s pretty much my research it’s
02:09
sitting in front of the computer getting
02:11
that data programming it in and making
02:12
sure it’s updated daily and setting up a
02:14
database for that so I live on campus
02:17
here and I love that register residence
02:20
and I’ve been living there for two years
02:23
now you know it’s been a great
02:25
experience the wonderful community of
02:26
students and I think it was a it was a
02:29
it was great for me particularly because
02:31
coming in first year you know I was away
02:33
from my family so it was a little bit
02:34
tough but then you know I found new
02:36
family of friends and it was a very
02:39
welcoming experience for me at the Yoga
02:42
inka personally I had expected when I
02:44
came here and you know you would expect
02:46
the majority of the population to be
02:47
Canadian citizens or students from here
02:50
and there there are a lot of people from
02:52
Kim Canada in the school but at the same
02:55
time I found like a huge international
02:56
community yes people from so many places
02:58
so I think you have a lot to relate to
03:02
especially as an international student
03:03
you have so many peers to relate to and
03:05
get help from so for me it was it was
03:08
great because first of all you have the
03:10
International Centre where I got my
03:13
advice and I got all the support I
03:14
needed when I first moved in and then
03:16
you have all your friends who also you
03:19
know who are also international students
03:20
as well as citizens and have a mix of
03:22
that so you get both perspectives you
03:24
know they help you out so it was great
03:25
for me in that way so I I i like
03:29
edmonton in one ways because it has all
03:32
the four seasons and i’ve never really
03:34
been in a country where it’s actually
03:36
been like that for me coming over here
03:38
my first winter was was enjoyable enough
03:41
that you know it was it was just great
03:43
have a wonderful campus you have a lot
03:46
of facilities which allow you to get
03:48
your work done at the same time so i
03:50
think that was one of the best things
03:52
being here your day
03:56
you