For Nada Elmasry, a junior in BYU Marriott’s global supply chain management (GSCM) program, the Egyptian flag hung in the Tanner Building’s atrium symbolizes the opportunity to represent her home country.
Inside the atrium of the Tanner Building, the walls are adorned by the many colors of the flags that represent where students are from or have come from, including the black, white, and red flag of Egypt. “Every time I walk past Egypt’s flag, I look up at it, and it makes me smile because I feel like I’m representing my country,” says Elmasry. “Being able to represent my country in a college in the United States isn’t something that a lot of people get to do.”
Elmasry was born in the United Arab Emirates and moved back and forth between the UAE and Egypt during her early childhood. As a child, Elmasry knew that pursuing her education would be important. “My parents instilled my siblings and me with the idea that education is the most important thing right now,” says Elmasry. “Growing up, I had that mindset tattooed in my brain, that I wanted to go to school, so that I would be able to support myself in the future.”
Elmasry attended the American International School of Egypt for high school and eventually decided to attend the BYU Marriott School of Business. “One question I hear often is: ‘Why did you come to BYU?’ And the reason is the BYU Marriott School of Business,” says Elmasry. “BYU Marriott has great programs, great faculty, opportunities, and the Honor Code, plus it’s relatively inexpensive.”
Now that she is at BYU Marriott, Elmasry makes a difference on campus by tutoring Arabic through Y-Serve. “This university has given me so much, and I want to give back in a way. I’m lucky to have a native language that other people struggle with,” says Elmasry. “To help people and see them actually develop a better grasp of a language makes me feel like I’m giving back to the community in a way.”
Additionally, Elmasry enjoys the chance to form meaningful relationships with her peers in the GSCM program as they collaborate. During her first semester in the GSCM program’s junior core, Elmasry was placed in a group with five other GSCM students, and the group worked together during all of their GSCM classes. “There was one project called Blue Star,” recollects Elmasry. “My team members and I spent about six hours together the night before the presentation was due, and we practiced and practiced and practiced. During that moment, I thought, ‘In the future, I’m going to look back at this moment, and I’m going to wish that we were still working together,’ because my team members were so supportive.”
Elmasry doesn’t just represent her country at the BYU Marriott School of Business. She also represents her fellow students as a member of BYU Marriott’s Student Council on the council’s diversity and inclusion team. As part of this role, she hopes to help guide international students through the process of finding an internship.
“I have had experience interviewing with many companies’ representatives who told me they didn’t take international students, so I wish that I had had someone who would guide me through that path and tell me which companies I should focus on,” says Elmasry. “My hope within the BYU Marriott School of Business is to create a list of companies that international students attending here can resort to in pursuit of an internship program that suits their profile.”
Though Elmasry still has time at the BYU Marriott School of Business, she knows that, even when she moves on from the school, the Egyptian flag will still hang in the Tanner Building’s atrium. “Maybe twenty years from now when I come as an alumna and look up at the flag, I’ll say, ‘Look, look, kids, the reason that flag is up there is because I decided to go into the BYU Marriott School of Business.’”
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Writer: Natalia Green
