TO LIFE bringing impact

The moment that changes your life can come anytime, anywhere. For Abukar Hassan, it was a regular weekday evening, sitting in the kitchen with his mom. That’s when he opened a letter informing him that he had been awarded the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service – also known as the Voyager Scholarship – funded by the Obama Foundation and AirBnB co-founder and CEO, Brian Chesky. The award includes $50,000 to put toward college tuition, and a $10,000 stipend to pursue a summer work-travel experience.

Hassan is one of only 100 students from around the country who make up the inaugural cohort of Voyager Scholarship recipients – and the only recipient in the state of Utah. He could hardly believe he had been chosen, he said, but his mom was even more surprised. She didn’t even know he had applied, even though it was her example and encouragement that prompted Hassan to try for the prestigious award in the first place.

A few weeks later, when former president Barack Obama and Chesky congratulated the Voyager recipients personally via Zoom, President Obama had a message for Hassan’s mom, too.

“He said one thing that struck me,” said Hassan, a double major in entrepreneurship and finance at the David Eccles School of Business. “He said, ‘Make sure to call up your mom or your dad or your grandparents and let them know that Obama said they’ve done good. And that they deserve a lot of the credit for how far you’ve already come and how far I’m confident you will go.’”

A Dream Becomes a Reality

Hassan, his mother and his six siblings immigrated to Utah from Egypt 15 years ago. He went to school down the street from the University of Utah and always dreamed of being on campus himself one day.

“I would always drive past the stadium and say, ‘I’m going to that school,’” he said.

Despite having no college education herself, Hassan said his mom instilled in all her children the importance of higher education.

“One thing my mom ingrained in us was, education will give you anything and everything you want,” Hassan said. “And she really showed us the importance of educating ourselves so we can help educate other people.”

One of Hassan’s older sisters was the first in the family to attend college. When Hassan’s turn came, a scholarship from the First Ascent program helped alleviate the financial barriers to attending college, and a drive to take advantage of every opportunity he saw helped Hassan build a strong network and community at the U. In addition to First Ascent, Hassan was a Business Scholar, Business Scholar Ambassador, and currently works as a presidential intern. He also lives at Lassonde Studios and is active in that community as well.

“I saw a lot of di erent opportunities that the university holds and just kept getting involved,” Hassan said.

All that involvement helped Hassan make a home at the U, but it also meant he almost missed his chance to apply for the Voyager Scholarship. He was on a study abroad trip to South Korea when he realized the application deadline was only three days away. He almost gave up right then and there.

“I thought, ‘There is no way in hell I would ever get that,’” Hassan said. “But then I decided it would be better to be rejected but to have tried.”

Hassan wrote essays and recorded videos (“Those took me a lot of tries,” he said) while he was still abroad, and then sent his application out into the world. Several months later, he opened his acceptance letter at the kitchen table with his mom at his side.

“The first word I read was ‘Congratulations,’” he said. “That’s all I needed to see.”

Bringing Other People’s Dreams to Life

The Voyager Scholarship is awarded to students in their junior year of college who are interested in public service, and it was that public service focus that really pushed Hassan to apply, he said. Growing up in an immigrant, refugee family, Hassan saw first-hand how di cult getting ahead can be when there are no policies or programs in place to support you.

“One thing I’ve seen through my own family are the constraints – time and family constraints – that sometimes make it impossible to get a college education,” he said. “When parents are working multiple jobs and they have kids to take care of, there is no time left over to go to college.”

And while those families struggle on the edge of poverty, Hassan added, large corporations hire them at minimum wage and make billions. Putting together a passion for service – learned from his mom – and an interest in entrepreneurship – cultivated at the Eccles School – Hassan has a couple ideas to address that inequity that he hopes to explore with the help of the Voyager Scholarship.

One is to create a program that helps immigrant and refugee families like his learn about wealth management, including how to invest and save their hard-earned money. His other idea is a non-profit organization that can help immigrants and refugees break out of the cycle of minimum wage work and poverty. In his vision, the organization would partner with employers that would hire people like Hassan’s mom with the commitment to give them the flexibility and time o to attend classes and earn a college degree.

“That’s where my entrepreneurial grit comes from. I want to find a solution to that problem of access one day,” Hassan said. “I know first-hand that college is key to higher wages and better opportunities. I am an extreme believer in education now.”

Coming to the Table and Making an Impact

In November 2022, Hassan traveled to New York to meet President Obama, Brian Chesky, and the rest of his Voyager class. The group spent a day hearing from global leaders about the meaning and impact of democracy, as well as networking with each other in smaller breakout sessions. Hassan even connected with a U alum who now works as chief of sta for the country of Palau.

“Hearing from other Voyagers, their goals and their accomplishments and what they’ve been able to accomplish in their communities – it was really so inspiring to be a part of it,” Hassan said. “It was really cool to see how we can collaborate with more impact.”

Other personal highlights for Hassan were spending some one-on-one time with Chesky, and hearing from President Obama about his hopes for this inaugural Voyager class.

“You could feel the room immensely change upon his entrance. You could see how excited he was,” Hassan said. “The thing that really caught my attention was him talking about youth and youth leaders and how we are the future of the country. He said he is excited to continue working with us, to speak about our problems and what we are doing to solve those problems in our communities.”

Hassan left his time in New York with a lot of new connections, and some more clear ideas of the type of internship he’d like to complete this summer. Being the only Voyager scholarship recipient from Utah comes with some unique stress, but after meeting the rest of his cohort, Hassan is feeling ready to start making an impact that matters.

“I am excited to represent the state that has welcomed me so well, but there is a little pressure,” Hassan said. “Working for big change can be scary and intimidating at a lot of points but if you are willing to embrace your di erence and get into the room where you want to be, you really can be part of making a di erence for other people and yourself. My mom always said, give back and it will come back to you 10 times.” ■