I still remember how everything started and how the journey of change began in 2017 when I was a freshman student, at the Higher School of Economics and Commercials Sciences of Tunis.
I was eager to search for new activity and excited about joining a community of young people who were able to make a positive impact that could change something around us.
Then I found the Hult Prize, which was organized in our university for the first time. no one knows it before … and everything I heard about it, was that you had to create a good project to make a real impact to get 1 million dollars.
In fact, I was not much interested in that, the amount was an incredible and imaginary a little bit, but fortunately, there was a friend of mine who had already done the registration process and put me in his team without getting my permission … After two weeks, I found myself in the training sessions with many teams aspiring to win, this inspired and motivated me to work more.
I remember that in the last week before the competition, we did not sleep or go to university. We dreamed to change the lives of people to better with our idea, That was very inspiring, and indeed we did it and won the on-campus program in our university that happened for the first time.
2018 London Regional summit
We were planning to travel to London to participate in the 2018 regional summit.
I really fell at that moment in love with the movement because it gave me the opportunity to travel that I have never had… the way to London was long and difficult, we took a long time to collect money for the trip and prepare for the competition and all that require a lot of sacrifices, but we believed that the change required a lot of boldness and hard work …
The difficulties were countless, we did not get visas in time and we did not arrive in London except on the second day of the competition.
It was the most amazing adventure we did already and although we could not go ahead with the competition, when we meet more than 40 teams from all over the world, from different universities, countries, languages and different ages, inspired us a lot … and it was indeed the biggest inspiration for us to meet one of the winning team in 2017 Roshni Rides and get to know the team that actually won in 2018 Rice Inc…
Campus Director journey
When we returned to Tunisia, I discovered that the competition no longer existed in our university, so I decided to jump on board and took responsibility for organizing the competition to give the chance to other students to go through the experience that I had already gone through as a competitor and as a campus Director, but the impact was not as great as we expected …
That year was my last year at the university and the decision to organize the third edition 2019/2020 was very difficult but we wanted to leave the best memory for this year.
The work started in July 2019, with 15 members who are enthusiastic about the change.
Top 20 Campus Director
It was not easy, but we succeeded in making a big noise and we touch more than 500 students in our university and we did more than 20 individual training sessions and cooperation with six clubs, We have faced financial and administrative difficulties but we did not give up. It was an unforgettable experience and what is truly unforgettable is when we saw the name of our university ESSEC Tunis within Top 20 Events, We have made it.
All I wanted then was to congratulate all the team members for their wonderful work that led us to the most wonderful result. And then I started preparing for a visit to London again and attending the 2020 regional summit, but unfortunately, everything cancelled because of the coronavirus and the cancellation of all gatherings.
I had been waiting for the event two years ago and we worked very hard and we were among the top 20 … but this did not affect our resolution because we believe in change … When I remember all this while at home and I’m waiting for the accelerator, to meet every Hulter I can’t be more proud.
After this long journey, I am standing here today as a Community Builder of the Hult Prize on-campus program in Tunisia to see the huge impact that we have achieved this year by reaching more than 70 universities with a community that has grown in passion and enthusiasm.
TunisianMonitorOnline (Mohamed Ghayadhi Former Campus Director at HULT Prize ESSEC Tunis)
