Guest Series by: Dante Mugnaini, Summer Intern, University of South Florida
The Florida Consortium is excited to introduce Ready, Set, Work: Student Perspectives, a blog series that shines the light on student success, but from the student’s vantage point. Andrew Aboujaoude, Faith Burns, and Alexis Szelwach, shared their personal experiences during our Student Success Conference back in 2017 and we’ve caught up with them to find out what they’ve been up to. These interviews will be posted over the next couple weeks, but for now, let’s guest started. Our first follow up interviewee is Andrew Aboujaouade. He is currently in the Middle East, but we managed to get in touch with him. In this interview he tells us what he’s been doing since graduating from University of Central Florida, his vision for the organization he started while at UCF, and his plans for the future.
Q: What have you been up to since graduation?
A: Last year, I was applied to medical schools with the hopes of becoming a medical doctor. I was awarded the Newman Civic Fellowship and received the Student Excellent in Service Award for the entire state university system of Florida. I also helped lead an effort in Orlando, Gainesville, and Miami to aid the homeless in evacuating to shelters when Hurricane Irma struck. Additionally, I’ve worked very hard on my nonprofit Hearts for the Homeless International, with the hopes of expanding its services for the homeless community. Finally, I’ve spent a great amount of time on a research project for the homeless community that has taught us a lot.
Q: Could you tell us a little about your college experience majoring in biomedical sciences? When and why did you choose that particular field of study?
A: As a student at UCF in biomedical sciences, I did coursework in microbiology and molecular biology. I also did a political science minor where I learned about our political system. I devoted my time to a variety of research and volunteering opportunities while at UCF. One of my most devoted commitments came in organizational leadership as a president and founder of the nonprofit Hearts for the Homeless International.
Q: What attracted you to UCF?
A: I am from Texas and am returning to Texas for medical school but I love what UCF stands for. The motto “UCF Stands for Opportunity” really connected with me. It is not just a cliche motto, but it really represented some of the talent that UCF has turned around and produced over the years. For example, Blake Bortles who came to the school with little pomp or promise, left having led the Knights to a Liberty Bowl win. And now he’s the first quarterback drafted in his draft class. It also stood for Albert Maneros who came in as an ordinary student and quickly revolutionized the prosthetics industry to make lives better for amputees. It represents underdogs like Shaqueem Griffin who come in, worked hard, and shows that opportunity at UCF exists if you are dedicated and work hard. The examples are endless and made me believe that the school had a system where anyone can succeed and make an impact with the right demeanor and perseverance. I wanted to be a part of this “everyone has a fair chance” culture.
Q: While you were a student, you began working with homeless shelters to track the blood pressure of its visitors. Could you tell us a little bit more about how you became interested in the homeless community?
A: I was walking through downtown Orlando one night when a homeless man came up to me. He was extremely articulate, well-read, and impressive. He started to tell me about how the system had failed him and his son. What made the experience so memorable was that halfway through the conversation, a car came by, and egged us. Seeing the homeless man not care and continue talking uninterrupted made me curious. I wondered if this was a consistent theme for the homeless. I went to my dorm that night and was so disappointed in my city. I realized that we needed to do more for it, and we needed to change the way that we do things and treat others. I came up with an idea to help that was uniquely me. It interested me because it created the opportunity to change the next generation’s mentality by making them aware of the homelessness issue early before they got into their careers. For the homeless, it gave them a chance to be consistently cared for. The thing that makes me so proud is that Hearts for the Homeless International is one of the only resources dedicated to the underserved that is consistently available at an easily accessible location. It also is based on an equal relationship between our students and the homeless where we both learn from each other. I don’t see too many situations like this because it can be very hard for some to achieve when they are helping others.
Q: Are you still working with Hearts for the Homeless?
A: Yes. We changed the name to Hearts for the Homeless International Inc. recently because our work has started to span more than just Orlando, something I don’t think we quite ever imagined or expected. We have done work in Orlando, Tampa, Tallahassee, Miami, Gainesville, Dallas, three cities in Brazil, and two cities in Nicaragua. We partnered with Universal and Bombas to provide free socks that have moisture-reducing technology. Our future plans and work will potentially include expansion to a few new states across the country and a few new countries across the world. Leticia Lenkiu, Jennifer Carvel, and I will lead and manage that effort with great young leaders around the world and the country who want to do something great for homeless communities.
Q: Do you have plans to contribute more to the homeless in your community?
A: Yes. We just initiated Hearts for the Homeless Dallas at the University of North Texas. Senator Cornyn and his office along with Representative Jackson-Lee on Capitol Hill got to hear about this work and were excited about helping and supporting homeless communities in their state. We are also planning expansion efforts to other countries and states not mentioned above or in the previous question with varying degrees of promise in the early stages of organization formation. With the great leadership of my colleagues in the organization, ideas like the Giving Tree led by Kayla Ferro to feed the city’s homeless nutritional food through tree planting on UCF’s Downtown Campus looks likelier by the day. The partnership to provide women’s hygiene products led by Valeria Ruiz to help homeless women has also been created. The work to provide dental supplies and instructions for the homeless was recently started by Kevin Nguyen. These are just some examples of branching out services. We have great young students leading the way which makes this bigger and better for many more communities who really need genuine, consistent support.
Q: Do you feel UCF’s career readiness programs and other student services prepared you for the workforce?
A: They exposed us to the real world pretty early. They presented opportunities for us to pursue research and community service. One of the best student services was the LEAD Scholars Academy at UCF. They invested so much in their students.They provided exceptional volunteering and leadership opportunities for all of us. Most importantly, and I emphasize this, they provided good, solid mentorship.
Q: Did your professors at UCF mention what kind of careers biomedical sciences majors could get into? Did you do your research through the program or other services provided by the school?
A: They did, it was a variety of healthcare professions, if one went to professional school like dentistry, veterinary, medical, podiatric, or research. For those who did not move onto professional school, there were not as many career prospects. I asked advisors about this as well and received responses that indicated graduate level education was required.
Q: As a student you had a 4.0 GPA, were part of the Honors College, and were actively involved in co-curricular activities. If you could share some tips for students currently working towards a degree, what would the top three be?
A.
- Build a network of good peers and mentors: this means surround yourself with good-quality people. Being surrounded by these kinds of people really drove me and helped me establish a meaningful path to success.
- Be Persistent and Fail Early: If you work through challenges and obstacles persistently, you will likely eventually overcome them in the long-run. In those situations when you clearly can’t succeed, accept that fact and cut your losses as early as possible. Don’t ever let one failure destroy everything else. Most importantly, don’t let that one failure drive you to destroy everything else.
- Be a taskmaster: My dad always used to tell me this. It means to achieve a task one at a time to avoid being overwhelmed. Just focus on one problem, solve it, and then go to the next one. My dad always reminded me of that movie Hacksaw Ridge when the medic Desmond Doss keeps asking god to grant him success in saving one more person at a time, rather than being overwhelmed by the fact that he had to save 75 people in one battle. Students who feel overwhelmed with tasks often let that feeling get in the way of their work. So this advice helped me with that problem when I started school.
Q: Lastly, could you share what your goals are for the next five years?
A: My goals are to graduate from medical school with an M.D. at the University of Texas Southwestern. I also hope to have the opportunity to serve in the military. Hopefully I’ll get scroll approved soon and officially commissioned soon after. I recently received acceptance into the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program. As for my nonprofit leadership goals, I hope to be able to expand its work to at least 10 more states and a few more countries in the next five years. This will help many more homeless communities. As for my research goals, I hope to be able to be part of a homeless research study that will involve multiple cities and states including Florida to help us better understand the issue.
In closing, as you can see, Andrew is passionate about his work which is grounded in helping others. He is just starting on his journey and beginning life after UCF but we believe he’ll continue to be successful for years to come.