Experience

My Journey at LAU

Malak Sayour ’22

When I first joined LAU, I was anxious about leaving my comfort zone, not being able to socialize, and being away from my hometown Tripoli. Within a few months, I was able to see the true value of this university: beyond providing an education, it creates leaders.

Throughout my academic years, I received constant motivation from faculty, which helped me score high grades. Even when I did not, they were always supportive, which kept me motivated to give in my best. After a year of hard work to raise my GPA, the University Honors Program made me realize that, in fact, a high GPA is not enough. Remarkable students need to know how to deal with change and understand their character strengths. That was when I started working on developing my soft skills.

I attended multiple talks, joined the Youth Leadership Program, organized events, and was a speaker at multiple workshops both inside and outside university. My confidence grew drastically, and I regained my belief that I could make a difference in this world. In my second year, I was offered to give tutoring sessions for statistics course, which helped me become the teaching assistant for the Control Systems course.

Teaching my peers, preparing course material, and providing feedback was eye opening, rewarding, and offered a glimpse of what my future could look like if I continued with the same motivation and energy.

During my senior year, the School of Engineering offered me the chance to do an internship at BMW group in Germany. This was a turning point. I went to Germany afraid of failure, and I left with a PhD offer from one of the biggest companies in the world! I knew then and there that I am more capable and smarter than I thought.

I believed that my future will be bright if only I had the courage to pursue it. I promised myself that I would never allow fear to take hold of me nor doubt myself. I will always be grateful for the people who inspired me and stood by my side along the way. 

Today, I graduate from LAU grateful, inspired, and gratified. I believe that a university’s value is not only determined by its ranking, employability and research output, but also by the quality of students it graduates, the inspiration it offers them and the sense of possibility it creates along the way.

I hope that one day, I will be able to help other students have access to this university regardless of any hardships they might face. I also hope that future students become inspirational leaders, and that they understand that nothing can stop them from changing the world.