Interacting with a truly international student body gave me better insight into my future career path in the Middle East.

World citizen
I have always been interested in the world outside my borders. I grew up in a half American, half Afghani family, and my multicultural heritage led to an interest in and a unique perspective on global politics. When I was an undergrad, I envisioned myself working in development in the Middle East. I first planned on starting with a PhD in economics and then working for a development focused NGO. After working in research at MIT, however, I discovered academia was not the best place for me to work because of the distance between theory and result. After college, I had the opportunity to spend time in Egypt as a Fulbright scholar, and it opened up a whole new world for me. It was incredibly valuable to understand how another segment of the world thinks about things. I got a sense of development, the basic things that many people don't have, and how solving little problems can make big changes. For an MBA student, I was on the young side in terms of both age and experience. As an undergraduate, I invested a good amount of time in understanding the Middle East and learning Arabic, and I decided that if I wanted to go further I would need to be immersed in the culture and also develop some strong contacts. When I found that Penn's Lauder program had an Arabic track, I was really excited. Wharton gave me an excellent base in the core MBA skills, but the global focus was even more important. Interacting with a truly international student body gave me better insight into my future career path in the Middle East.

Wharton International Volunteer Program
During the summer between my first and second year at Wharton, I spent one month in Afghanistan through the Wharton International Volunteer Program. I was born there, but my family left shortly before the Russian invasion when I was a year old. I had never been back. I went there partly because that is where my uncles, aunts, and cousins live, but I also went there to volunteer to teach Excel and business problem-solving classes at the central bank. When I was in Washington, DC on a Wharton Career Trek, I had stopped by the Afghan embassy, met with the ambassador, and gotten a contact for the bank from his assistant. When I got to Afghanistan, I had a classroom of 15 future supervisors of the central bank – the guys who will decide whether or not banks get licenses – and I was able to scrounge up three computers so I could try to teach them.

My career
After Wharton I followed the path that Lauder Arabic set out for me and joined a leading Kuwait Logistics company – PWC Logistics. The funny thing is that my first projects sent me to places where they spoke Turkish and Farsi. Then very quickly my job became helping the company be more global and I was on the plane to London, LA, Hon Kong and Hamburg, signing up advisors and running the diligence and analysis for the acquisition of a global competitor. The lesson for me is that very specific knowledge from Wharton was not the most important tool. The most important tools I had gained were a general ability to work internationally, followed up with the core of business school – and an ability to make difficult, complicated decisions in a reasonable way and then communicate that information to an organization and ultimately get the organization to buy in to the decision. I think you gain a level of professional maturity at Wharton that makes it easy for you to sit down and do business with CEOs and MDs of companies without being overly intimidated. That acceleration has given me an idea of how quickly I can accomplish different career goals. What my experience proves, also, is that global business is getting more and more important. I took a role thinking that I would be focused on the Middle East, and quickly found that the whole world was my playground. It's not so easy to avoid the world any more – you really have to be ready to deal outside your comfort zone. The Wharton experience is a great way to get prepared for that global world of commerce – you have classmates from everywhere and work on projects that address questions from around the world."

Advice to incoming students
When you come to Wharton don't get too convinced by the herd what your career plan should be. It's easy to go to all of the information sessions and dinners, and follow that route. However, don't forget there are other options as well. It can be amazing to be in a part of the world or in a sector that doesn't have as many MBAs – you will quickly find yourself twice as valuable as you were before. It's not simple, you have to be careful to pick a position where you will be empowered and able to develop – but if you do, the experience can be very rewarding.

Major: Wharton/Lauder: Multinational Management and Middle East

Extracurricular Activities: Member, Wharton Arab Club, Muslim Students Network, Operations Club, Wharton International Volunteer Program, University of Pennsylvania bike racing team

Internship: Afghan Central Bank, Future Pipe Group (Dubai based pipe manufacturer)

Favorite Classes at Wharton: Geopolitics, Decision Models and Uncertainty