In 2009, at 22, I was elected president of the EMI-Entreprises Forum at the École Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs, the first event of its kind in Morocco connecting engineering students with the corporate world. I want to write about what that year actually shaped in me, not the title itself.
What the Forum was
The EMI-Entreprises Forum was the flagship event of the École Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs, launched by its students in 1995 as the first event of its kind in Morocco. By 1999 it had earned the high patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI. Year after year, it grew into the country’s largest event of its kind by number of visitors and partner companies, drawing not only EMI students but students from other institutions and distant regions of Morocco. Prestigious companies set up stands to present their work and recruit, alongside a program of conferences and round tables built around specific themes, with major public figures contributing.
I didn’t arrive at the presidency directly. In 2008, the year before, I served as an active member of the support committee. That groundwork is what led the organizing committee to vote me in as president for the 2009 edition.
Why this role mattered more than its title
Being elected president wasn’t the point. What the role demanded of me was.
By 2009 I’d already spent two years in preparatory classes after my baccalauréat in 2005, then joined EMI in 2007. So at 22, in my second year at the school, I suddenly became responsible for its flagship event while still managing my coursework. There was no buffer between the two. I had to learn, quickly, how to hold both without letting either collapse.
I was also, by nature, shy. Leading a national-scale event with ministers, CEOs, and CMOs in the room isn’t a role that accommodates shyness. It forces you out of it, or it exposes you. I chose the first option, deliberately, week after week.
What the role actually built in me
Responsibility under real stakes. This wasn’t a simulation. The Forum was the school’s flagship event, the first of its kind in Morocco, and I was accountable for it. Carrying that weight at 22 taught me what responsibility feels like when the outcome is visible and the deadline doesn’t move.
A shy personality, worked on, not erased. I didn’t become a different person. I built, deliberately, the soft skills and organizational instincts that didn’t come naturally: public speaking, coordinating teams, making decisions under pressure. The shyness didn’t disappear. I learned to act through it.
Access to rooms I wouldn’t otherwise have entered. Through the Forum, I met ministers and senior public administration officials, alongside CEOs and CMOs from the private sector. Sitting across from decision-makers like that, at that stage of my life, reframes what’s possible. It’s not about the names. It’s about realizing, early, that these conversations are accessible if you put yourself in the room.
A foundation that opened doors I couldn’t see yet. The experience gave me a credential that mattered later, not because it was a line on a CV, but because of what it proved: that I could carry a large responsibility, manage people, and deliver under pressure, while still a student.
Proof that trust is earned in stages. I didn’t skip to the presidency. I earned it by being useful first, as a committee member in 2008, before the organizing committee voted me into the role the following year. That sequence matters more to me now than the title itself.
What I’d tell myself at that stage
Take the unglamorous role first. The committee work in 2008 wasn’t the headline. It’s what made the headline possible in 2009.
Don’t wait to feel ready for the responsibility. I wasn’t, fully. I learned the balance between coursework and leading a national event by doing it, not by feeling prepared in advance.
Let the role work on what you’d rather hide. My shyness didn’t get a pass because the stakes were high. It’s exactly the stakes that forced the growth.
From Intention to Impact, this is one of the earliest proofs I have that a single extracurricular decision, made at 22, can shape the trajectory of everything that follows.
