Mohamed Amine Belarbi has been involved and engaged since graduating in 2012. From RCN he went straight to New York University in Abu Dhabi where he is not only successfully pursuing his studies but is also something of a serial entrepreneur, having founded two NGOs and two businesses. His entrepreneurship-focused publication, Gulf Elite has 40,000 readers a month, and his Arabic publication, Business Arabi has 30,000 readers in the region. He also founded the ‘Opportunities for Students‘ facebook group, which has 49,000 international student members where opportunities – for internships, competitions, conferences, scholarships and more – are shared for the benefit of a worldwide student population.

As icing on the cake, in late 2015 at the 3rd Arabian Business Achievement Awards – celebrating the UAE’s most impressive achievers in the growing startup and small-medium business sector – Mohamed was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Here he is at a TEDx event delivering a talk titled, ‘The Entrepreneur Within Us’; and here is a written profile and interview with him.

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My two years at UWCRCN has deeply affected the way I am and what I do today. Going to a university was not the obvious choice for me when I grew up as a refugee from Iran in a socially disadvantaged neighborhood. But after UWCRCN I chose to study Social Sciences, driven by a curiosity to better understand the world around me. Since then I have been working project-based for a range of private and public organizations and have always tried to spice up the projects with some UWC idealism. An example was in 2011-2012 when I was part of the team planning and organizing the Danish Presidency of the European Council. My team decided to add sustainability as the framework of the Presidency. This meant considering environmental, social and economic aspects of all decisions from choosing suppliers, the way we cooperated with other actors as well as in our communications. The Presidency ended up being nicknamed “The Tap Water Presidency” and was the first event to be certified as a sustainable event. But more importantly, the UWC experience has made a huge difference for me on a personal level. Being selected to represent Denmark at a UWC as a Danish student was a recognition of me as a new kind of Dane. It gave me the feeling of inclusion in society that no integration policy will ever be able to achieve.

For profiles and news of other students and alumni, click here.