Middle East and North Africa Club
Mission Statement
The mission of the Middle East North Africa Club (MENA) is to provide the HBS community with opportunities to experience the Middle East and North Africa Region and the Arab World in illuminating and enriching ways. We also aim to bring together the MENA community and enrich their HBS experience, as well as create and maintain a strong link among current students, MENA alumni, and the MENA business community.
Annual Events
- Fusion Party
- Speaker series
Club Email Address
Club Officers
- Co-Presidents
Hicham Fadel,
Dalia Rahman, - CFO
Ziad Halabi,
Mailing Address
Harvard Business School
Student Clubs of HBS, Inc.
Middle East North Africa Club
#2207 Student Mail Center
Boston, MA 02163
Community Values are a set of guiding principles for all that we do wherever we are and with everyone we meet. Applying these basic values to difficult situations is the best way to demonstrate our character and leadership.
The discussion of race raised in an HBS case was so enlightening that our professor organized further conversation after class to talk about the history of race relations in the United States and what we could do to improve it. I came out of that class and thought, 'Today, my perspective is bigger than it used to be.'
You can't expect to be successful by trying to force others to share your assumptions. Every culture has a different mindset. It's your obligation to understand why they're different.
HBS takes diversity to a different level. In any given class, someone with a background relevant to the case will spontaneously offer intelligent insights about it. During a discussion on a case set in the former Soviet Union, two students who grew up under Communist regimes talked about the experience.
This is a welcoming community. I'm able to be me here.
I knew it would be a lot of hard work, but this is a place that surprises you. The students' diversity of experiences and specialties have really come out in the variety of cases we share. The case method is a model where students become the teachers. It makes students responsible for leading the class. I can't imagine a better way to develop leaders.
HBS is about educating leaders to make a positive difference in the world. To me, one cannot be a leader without espousing the values of respect, integrity, and personal accountability, which stand around us every day as our Community Values. When I arrived as an eager first year, I was excited to take a leadership role in my section, and the Leadership and Values Rep role jumped out to me as a perfect fit. I could practice what I believed and help others feel the same way.
We're most susceptible to failure when we think we have it all figured out. We need to be humble enough to surround ourselves with smart people and solicit ideas from them. And we have to be confident enough to make decisions.
As a college graduate with a nonprofit background, I was concerned that I would not fit in among the high-powered career crowd that I would meet at HBS. Yes, I met the bankers, the consultants, and the techies, but their interests lie far beyond their previous careers.
No matter what your beliefs or struggles are, someone is always there to help you without judging you; this is powerful.
One of the things that impresses me about the HBS experience is how people from myriad different backgrounds, faiths, cultures, and countries come together in a spirit of mutual respect and tolerance. I was skeptical that such community values could exist, but at HBS they are more than an ideal, they are a way of life.
