Since 2011 Coca Cola has been sponsoring a university scholarship program for Egyptians and later other Arabic students in North Africa and the Mideast. In 2011 the company successfully partnered with the USA Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and sent ten high school students to attend the Engineering Innovation Summer Program at John Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering in Baltimore, Maryland. Coca Cola was supporting the Department of State’s Partners for a New Beginning (PNB) which is committed to deepening engagement between the USA and local international communities on issues of education, exchange, economic opportunity, and science and technology, in order to advance the vision outlined by President Obama in his 2009 speech given in Cairo. 
In 2012 Coca Cola partnered with the State Department once more but this year with Indiana University and increased the number of students to one hundred which now included participants from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, and Palestine as well as Egypt. The one month business course at the university’s prestigious Kelley School of Business ended with a visit at the State Department and other federal offices in Washington, DC, as well as a final trip to the Coca Cola Company’s headquarters in Atlanta, GA. The winners of this amazing scholarship were chosen because of projects they created that demonstrated their leadership potential and their future skills as entrepreneurs. The media coverage of this scholarship project was extensive, including local and regional media, news channels, online news and business sites, blogs, and a huge following on Facebook. I personally heard about this incredible opportunity and posted the contest on my Facebook page for all of my friends in that part of the world to see. 
On the right picture with me are two of my friends who participated in this program —Mahmoud N. Kelany from Egypt in the striped shirt and Mahmoud S. Mansour from Palestine in the light blue plaid shirt. These photos were taken in a hotel lobby in Atlanta in July 2012 when I had the great honor to meet both of them before they flew back to their homes that evening.
This past summer the one hundred 2013 scholars were drawn from Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, and Tunisia. Afghanistan and Pakistan were added based on the demonstrated need to stimulate entrepreneurship and ethical business competencies with their countries. Once again the site for the program was Indiana University. Highlighted courses were Introduction to Business, Communications, Finance Accounting, Marketing, Operations, Strategy, Human Resources, and Entrepreneurship. A wide variety of instructional, interactive, and experimental sessions in addition to group discussions, cultural and regional-specific talks, and practical applications and implications of what they had learned in a variety of business settings were used as instructional techniques by the university staff. 
The course concluded with a formal presentation on their group project that demonstrated how it could be implemented effectively in their home country. A panel of judges assessed and evaluated each project and made suggestions of improvements to each group.
Hopefully this highly beneficial learning and cultural experience will continue for many more years, and more students and more countries will be added to this superb scholarship program. As a teacher, I am always impressed and elated when the business community supports educational programs. It is my dream that once our world economy recovers in the future that more companies will start programs such as this one to promote education and better world understanding which is desperately needed. 
I asked my dear Egyptian friend Mahmoud N. Kelany to share his experiences during the 2012 program at Indiana University. It was so beautifully written that I have decided to share his exact words. He will also share an exciting new program in which he will get to participate and his dreams for the future. Mahmoud is just one of the many incredible young Egyptians that have become so close to me now. I hope after reading his words, you will also understand why my wish and desire to help these amazing, hard-working, and ambitious young Egyptians is so intense and so passionate. Read and enjoy the heartfelt words of Mahmoud please.
I was lucky enough to be among 100 participants over 6 countries over the Middle East to win Entrepreneurship program at Kelly School of Business, Indiana University as a result of being one of the winners of “How to rebuild Egypt” competition. There my journey got started with a fantastic field called Entrepreneurship. During the program, I knew true new friends and gained a lot of knowledge, experiences, and skills as well as I got a chance to meet successful entrepreneurs, investors, economists, ambassadors, governmental representatives, the secretary of Obama and even the CEO of world Coke Company throughout lots of visits to some leading companies, US Department of States, the Pentagon, the Capitol, US Chamber of Commerce and much more. Lots of appreciation must go to Coke team for all what they made for us.
After coming back to my home country, Egypt, I got involved in some startup companies. Then I decided not to stop developing myself to extend this with others as not many Egyptian youth got a chance as I did, and we all suffer from the lack of resources to translate our ideas into reality. At this moment, I thought of bringing the Startup Weekend Event to Giza, and I actually did get to be on last May for the first time in Giza representing the Global Organization in Seattle and led its efforts on the local side with three of my friends to make one of the shining events supporting entrepreneurs where 120 entrepreneurs participated with 50 promising ideas that ended with 13 startup companies.
September 13, 2013. I was extremely grateful and blessed for having been selected among more than 500 youths between the ages of 18-25 years old from 60 nations to participate in Global Startup Youth in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on October 8-11 comprising of developers, hustlers, domain expert, and youth leaders with a group of international mentors and facilitators into a single venue over three days and to the 4th Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the same city on October 11-12 that will bring 3,000 entrepreneurs together from the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the United States and will provide an important platform for entrepreneurs to network and exchange experiences and knowledge. These two events are a part of the Startup Malaysia Organization initiative.
This time I will meet Obama himself as he is expected to deliver a keynote address during the meeting alongside with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. It’s going to be one of the most amazing milestones in my life. Networking and working with passionate entrepreneurs, academicians, professionals from all around the world is the best worthwhile thing in an entrepreneur’s life. 
“Aim for the stars and maybe you will reach the sky”. This is one of my favorite quotes that have changed my entire life, and it’s still my goal since the first time this was said with the beginning moments of welcoming 2012 after my failure in 2011 at school. Now, I’m a totally different person of unlimited passion and still have a lot of stars I’m aiming to reach.
Randi D. Ward
September 24, 2013
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