Born in Rabat, Waddah a 29 year old Moroccan studied telecommunication engineering at the National Institute for Technology. However, Waddah relates, “During my years at the University I found that I was constantly stressed. Stress is how teachers measure the success of your education, if the student is stressed then the teachers are satisfied.” There was very little time to engage in anything outside his studies which were very narrowly concentrated within the field. And he found his creativity and interest in branching out unwelcome. “Whenever I would come up with an idea for an extracurricular activity or a project that would allow us to explore other ideas, I would take it to the teachers and students and both would shoot it down. The teachers didn’t want us ‘wasting our time’ on anything other than our books and the students said they couldn’t afford the luxury of spending their energies on anything but passing their courses.”
But then during his last year at the University, Waddah participated in a capstone course that involved working hands-on on a project for a private company. It was part of an initiative that the University had instituted as a public-private sector partnership to forge stronger links between education and employment by giving students work experience Indeed, Waddah’s project earned him a full-time position upon graduation. “It was the perfect situation to be in: having a job straight out of college—and not any job—but with a multinational that paid better than other Moroccan companies.”
Despite this, Waddah found himself once again, stifled. “The position had a steep learning curve and eventually it was something that I became so proficient at and realized that there was no where else for me to go. I had career and life aspirations, but I felt trapped in a position where I couldn’t go any further, couldn’t challenge myself. So one day I sat down and looked at our company organizational chart and decided I wanted to become a country manager. It was a long shot but you have to aim for the moon right?” Indeed high professional aspirations as well as financial motivations being the main breadwinner for the family since his father’s retirement gave him the drive he needed.
“I realized that in order to do this I would have to get a business degree so I looked into business programs in Morocco but after a while started becoming pessimistic again. The programs didn’t seem competitive on a global level and my few friends who graduated from such programs were still sitting around without a job.” If he truly wanted to become a country manager at a Multinational Corporation, Waddah believed he had to leave Morocco. But receiving an education in Europe or the U.S. would be costly and given his position in the family he could not risk taking loans and going into debt. It was through a friend that he finally heard of the Fulbright scholarship program –offering full funding for the university of his choice notwithstanding acceptance, it was exactly what he needed. He applied, and the acceptance was a turning point in his life. “I felt hopeful for the first time in a long time. I knew that this would be the opening of a different world for me where I would receive an education that would get me somewhere; one that would give me the tools and skills to make it in this world, and not just box me up in one position for the rest of my life.”
Studying in the U.S proved to be a completely different educational experience. “I was receiving an education that would get me somewhere; one that would give me the skills to make it in this world. Communication, leadership and community involvement were three things that stand out most in my experience - three things that are almost non-existent in the Moroccan educational system. A Moroccan could be the best engineer in the world and the world would never know it because he neither knows how to communicate his expertise or use it into the development of his community, nor lead himself towards greater opportunities.” Today Waddah is back working for the same company he started with in Rabat and on track towards fulfilling his dream of becoming country manager.
