Joining AUC: A Dream Come True

“It was my dream to join the AUC School of Business,” said Kholoud Wael, accounting and finance junior student. “I was inspired by its global ranking, and since then, I’ve always wanted to join it.” Wael is a recipient of the HSBC Bank Egypt Endowed Public School Scholarship awarded to one student enrolled in a finance-related major. 

Wael has always been a fan of Egyptian talk show host Mona El Shazly ’96, perceiving her as a well-rounded individual who she took on as a role model. “Ever since I found out that she’s an AUC graduate, I immediately started exploring the University’s majors and learned more about the campus life,” she recounted.

While her passion growing up was equally distributed among business and journalism, she found herself leaning toward business when it was time to choose. Currently, she studies both finance and accounting because she believes they complement one another and are an integral part of our daily lives.

On aspirations, Wael wants to become a successful entrepreneur and is especially interested in FinTech.

“I’m sure that AUC will have a very great impact on my skills and enable me to achieve this goal. Not to mention, there are a lot of helpful resources at AUC, primarily the professors,” she emphasized. “They’re always there for us if we need any help and are always available to support us even outside the classroom.”

Among her favorite courses so far have been entrepreneurship and innovation with Associate Professor Randa El Bedawy, business finance with Associate Professor and Head of Finance Islam Azzam, and corporate finance with Adjunct Faculty Hany Genena. She also found a couple of core courses especially interesting, including education 1099 led by Assistant Professor Mustafa Toprak, the Arabic novel by Assistant Professor Dina Heshmat and scientific thinking by Assistant Professor Ahmed Abdellatif.

“Moreover, I’m benefiting a lot from the experience I am getting at AUC in different disciplines by joining the clubs and the other activities held by the University,” she added. Although campus presence is currently affected by COVID-19, she looks forward to participating in many more different activities that will add value to her and enable her to make more connections.  

On the note of the pandemic, Wael finds her experience with online learning quite challenging, mainly because of how much she misses the New Cairo campus and campus life.

“I miss going to face-to-face classes and interacting with professors. I also miss my friends and the university events,” she reflected. “Yet, there are always good sides to everything – and I think that this ‘online mode’ gave me a chance to spend more time with my family and to experience a new learning mode that taught me a lot. I managed to face this challenge and even landed an internship in addition to working at a startup part-time.”