Growing up in Kurdistan, Dr Jwan Kamla wanted to be a doctor. Today she’s a road safety engineer and a CIHT mentor and reviewer. She shares her own inspiring influences. Dr Jwan Kamla CEng FCIHT MSoRSA, Senior Engineer at Jacobs and CIHT East Midlands Region Vice Chair.
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When I was growing up, back home in Kurdistan, I wanted to go to medical school. I achieved the score to qualify, but none of the medical schools accepted me because of the high scores that year, so I ended up studying civil engineering. Although I didn't enjoy my first year, I loved it afterwards and ended up in the top five of the class. This enabled me to seek further postgraduate education and earn the ‘doctor’ title which I had always dreamt of. This didn’t just please me but it made my parents really proud. They had always said “you have to be a doctor” due to their beliefs in my ability.
At university, my heroes were the professors who were lecturing me, especially one of the women lecturers, Dr Zhian Anwer. I was really impressed by her achievements in a country where females were not always supported enough to reach that level of education. She was really a good example of someone in civil engineering as a female.
When I came to the UK, there were plenty of people that I looked up to, but the one that I’m very impressed with – and she's a hero for me – is Kate Carpenter. I'm blessed and lucky that I'm now working in her team. I can certainly say that she's my hero and that I’m always learning from her. I keep trying to be the best I can be and, like her, give back to the engineering community.
Something I picked up as part of the PhD process is to continuously seek new information, and do something that is novel and has not been done before. Research involves reading a lot, attending courses and further training, working really hard, and being in contact with my supervisors, stakeholders and researchers worldwide. That gave me the knowledge and understanding I needed to deliver my research. After I graduated from my PhD and left the academic world, I entered industry, which is totally different.
Similar to academia, industry requires you to be really up to date and quick to deliver tasks. I became a member of CIHT and quickly found it useful to join the CIHT East Midlands Region Committee. It was really rewarding being part of the community of transportation engineering through volunteering, networking, friendship, and involvement in leading and preparing events. At the same time, it was and still is beneficial for helping me to continue with my professional development.
Because I spent a lot of time in the academic world, I’ve always been exposed to students, providing advice and supervision - it’s second nature to me. After I became a chartered engineer and before I became a formal mentor, professionals would contact me for advice and support. As I was doing it informally, I decided to register through the CIHT website to become a mentor.
Engineers aren’t always able to find the right mentor due to the busy schedules of senior chartered engineers and the lack of chartered engineers willing to provide that support and help, so I’m happy to fill that gap. For me, mentoring individuals means helping and supporting, along with making the process easier and clearer. In my opinion, the more qualified engineers become, the better the deliverables, adding greater value to industry and the community.
Dr Jwan Kamla was in conversation with Craig Thomas.
Learn how to become a CIHT mentor, assessor and reviewer here.
Read Kate Carpenter BEng CEng MICE FCIHT FSoRSA BSc (Psych)’s thoughts for International Women’s Day here.
Join other savvy professionals just like you at CIHT. We are committed to fulfilling your professional development needs throughout your career
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