QF graduate takes learnings from the classroom to the pitch

Aspiring footballer Rabeea Al-Mulla is a 21-year-old Georgetown University in Qatar graduate who, over the last few years, has worked to take learnings from the classroom to the football pitch.

“University was a real eye-opener,” he says. “There were a lot of international students at my high school, Qatar Academy Doha, but the environment at university was very different.

“The way the classes are structured at Georgetown University in Qatar allow for a lot of in-depth discussions, where you learn about different ideas and you learn to accept different views.

“Within my football club, we have people with different nationalities, who speak different languages, and have different perspectives. The discussions I experienced within the classroom at GU-Q were very helpful, and I was able to take these learnings out on to the pitch – such as how to communicate with my teammates better and how to improve my time management skills.

“And I know that these skills will help me in my future, after university.”

Majoring in International Economics at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, while playing football for Qatar Sports Club, Al-Mulla had to find a balance between his studies and his training.

He says he wasn’t like the other students, as he wasn’t always around – on campus – because of football.

“The professors were really understanding of my situation. I remember one semester, we had to travel outside the country for training camps, and I had to drop a few classes so I could manage my course load. But my professors were very helpful; they encouraged me to keep playing, and to keep studying.”

Explaining how the support from the university motivated him and pushed him, Al-Mulla adds in the future he’d like to continue to balance playing sports while carving out a career in the financial sector in Qatar.

Al-Mulla is among 1,600 young students who were celebrated at Qatar Foundation's Convocation ceremony last week, which, due to public health measures, took place virtually.

Speaking about how COVID-19 impacted his studies, Al-Mulla explains that there were some benefits to online studying. “It gave me more free time and I was able to better manage my life outside of university. However, I must say, it was harder to retain information and stay focused on course material.”

And as he begins the next chapter of his life, Al-Mulla says to the next generation of QF learners: “Stick to it – even if at times it feels that you’re not in the place you want to be, or it feels like you’re are not making progress. The key is to stay consistent and focused until you reach where you want to be.”