Samia Breir, Alumna, Enterprise Risk Management
Hi. My name is Samia Breir, originally from Casablanca, Morocco. Welcome to #ISSOstories.
Which Columbia program/department are you in?
I graduated from the Enterprise Risk Management program at Columbia University.
After graduating from my Masters at Columbia, I joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in the Global Markets Division. And I also joined Columbia as an associate faculty in the same program where I graduated from, which is the ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) program. This has been a really great, incredible learning opportunity. It's a combination between the corporate life and the academic life. I get to apply, obviously, everything that I learned, all the concepts and risk management in my role at Goldman Sachs, but also I get to help students, support them in the program with all the experience that I got from- from the program itself.
Something that I'm proud of during my time is I was an ambassador at Columbia University Life and I was named the ambassador of the year. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that they gave me to join the ambassadors program. I think it's an amazing program and definitely everyone should apply to be part of it. It- it helps you build a community at Columbia, meet people from different countries. I know more than 150 countries are represented. So that's a great way to meet people, to just share ideas, etc.. Like my first semester, I was not doing anything like, I was just like, focusing on courses and stuff and exams. At the end of the first semester, I applied to the ambassadors program, and ULEC (University Life Events Council) and I got accepted. And then, like, literally my experience at Columbia changed. I met so many people. It's crazy.
I left Morocco when I was 17, and I went to France to do my undergrad. In France, we- we still have a lot of Moroccan students. We still have that culture there. So I never felt the need to actually be part of so many clubs or programs to meet people and build a community. I always felt like I had a community already of Moroccan students or French students, etc. Here, after coming to Columbia, I didn't know how important it is to build a community. When you go into the library, for example, or classrooms, you see so many nationalities and so many ideas. And people just bring to the table so many new perspectives, I would say, and this is something that I didn't know before. When you start a new life, you actually keep those connections and that community that will support you.
I'm on F-1 OPT STEM, so I get three years after graduation to be able to work in the US. Columbia does a really good job, and ISSO does a really good job at providing all the guidelines, reminding us, on when to actually start, preparing our documents, and starting the process. It's something that- that really helped me. I wasn't aware of, like, all the steps. Columbia does provide different, like, webinars to guide us and show us everything that we need to know. Yeah, don't stress about it. It's going to be fine. Take your time.
Okay. Free time and hobbies. “What's something fun you do that helps you forget stress?” I think something fun that I really like to do when I have a lot of exams, when I used to have a lot of exams, is basically just being in my bed, in my bedroom and watching a series on Netflix or something. I think it really helps you calm down, think about something else.
Tell us about your research or projects at Columbia.
After graduating from my Masters program at Columbia, I joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in the Global Markets Division. I also joined Columbia as an associate faculty in the same program where I graduated from. This has been really great and an incredible learning opportunity. It's a combination between the corporate life and the academic life. I get to apply everything that I learned, all the concepts and risk management in my role at Goldman Sachs, but also I get to help students, support them in the program with all the experience that I received from the program itself.
What is something you are proud of during your time at Columbia?
Something that I'm proud of during my time is that I was an ambassador at Columbia University Life and I was named the ambassador of the year. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that they gave me to join the ambassadors program. I think it's an amazing program and definitely everyone should apply to be part of it. The program helps you build a community at Columbia and meet people from different countries. I know more than 150 countries are represented. So that's a great way to meet people, share ideas, etc. In my first semester, I was not doing anything besides focusing on courses and exams. At the end of the first semester, I applied to the ambassadors program, and ULEC (University Life Events Council) and was accepted. And then, my experience at Columbia changed. I met so many people. It's crazy.
When you start a new life, you actually keep those connections and that community will support you.
What is something you wish you knew before coming here?
I left Morocco when I was 17 and I went to France to do my undergrad. In France, we still have a lot of Moroccan students. We still have that culture there. So I never felt the need to actually be part of so many clubs or programs to meet people and build a community. I always felt like I had a community already of Moroccan students or French students, etc. Here, after coming to Columbia, I didn't know how important it is to build a community. When you go into the library, for example, or classrooms, you see so many nationalities and so many ideas. People just bring so many new perspectives to the table. This is something that I didn't know before. When you start a new life, you actually keep those connections and that community will support you.
I'm on F-1 Post-Completion STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT), so I get three years after graduation to be able to work in the U.S. Columbia and ISSO does a really good job at providing all the guidelines – reminding us when to actually start, preparing our documents, and starting the process. It's something that really helped me. I wasn't aware of all the steps. Columbia provides different webinars to guide us and show us everything that we need to know. So yeah, don't stress about it. It's going to be fine. Take your time.
What's something fun you do that helps you forget stress?
Something fun that I liked to do during exam season was basically being in my bed, in my bedroom, watching a series on Netflix or something. I think it really helps you calm down and think about something else.
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