Education Enriched Her Life. With Her Mentorship Startup Enrich Academia, Sima Bou Jawde Wants Fellow International Students to Feel the Same

Sima Bou Jawde was just days away from taking her Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE,  when revolution erupted in her home city of Beirut, Lebanon. Long-simmering discontent with government corruption, strict austerity measures, and economic recession finally came to the fore in a series of national civil protests.

“People from all different religious, economic—you name it—backgrounds stood hand in hand and chanted for a better Lebanon,” Bou Jawde recalls. It was an awe-inspiring and hopeful sight. 

But the young scholar was torn. She was right in the middle of applying to universities in the United States, and needed to study for the GRE and write her personal statements. At the same time, she felt pulled to stand side by side with the protesting of her fellow citizens.

She figured out a way to do it all: “I went to classes in the morning, worked on my applications in the afternoons, and joined my people in the evening.” 

Bou Jawde got into college—she completed her master’s degree in public health at Boston University in 2022, and is knee-deep in doctoral research at Northeastern University for a PhD in public health. And the peaceful protests, which went on for several weeks, but were ultimately quashed, did have an effect. At the end of October 2019, the embattled Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned. 

Still, all was not well in Bou Jawde’s home country. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Lebanon spiraled into an economic crisis, exacerbated by a devastating explosion in the Port of Beirut. Her parents’ life savings, a portion of which was earmarked for Bou Jawde’s tuition in the U.S., were locked up in the bank as inflation rates skyrocketed. It seemed, for a while, that Bou Jawde’s best efforts at navigating the international application process while facing a national uprising would be hamstrung by lack of funding. 

Once again, however, she found a way through. Bou Jawde secured a scholarship that covered many of her expenses, and a job to cover the rest. 

“There was always this desire that I wanted to continue my education, and that I wanted to help my community. That was a drive for me,” she says. “And essentially, I think I was definitely one of the lucky ones, because I made it.”

These are not mere footnotes in Bou Jawde’s story. The harsh reality of the challenges she and many others face in chasing down their educational pursuits are always on Bou Jawde’s mind. The particular economic, cultural, and social challenges she and many international students grapple with are a steady topic of conversation among her friends as well, Bou Jawde says. 

“A lot of people are in similar situations like me, and they simply do not have the mentorship or the means to figure out this system. I was talking to a lot of my friends from similarly developed or developing countries, and we realized that we all had faced the same obstacles at one point or another,” she says. “Things like: How do you talk to professors? How do you email people? How do you write personal statements? And how do you apply for financial help?”

Eventually, the germ of an idea in the back of Bou Jawde’s mind began to take shape. International students face specific challenges, and often come from cultures that value community and storytelling—two things that can be hard to cultivate, at first, in a new country. 

That idea became Enrich Academia, a knowledge-sharing and mentorship program for and by international and underrepresented students. 

“It’s all about wisdom, and that’s a story as old as time,” Bou Jawde says. “Passing wisdom from one person to the next.” 

For now, Enrich Academia exists as a blog on the publishing platform Substack. There, Bou Jawde shares practical advice about topics such as writing personal statements and applying to graduate school. But she envisions it growing into a bona fide community of mentors and mentees, particularly for women, LGBTQIA+ people, people who are Arab, and people from Middle Eastern and North African countries. 

The mission, and Bou Jawde’s passion for it, won praise from the judges of this year’s Women Who Empower Innovator Awards. With her recognition, Bou Jawde joins a network of entrepreneurial and innovative women founders. The Innovator Awards, now in their third year, have supported 69 founders and distributed more than $820,000 since their inception.

“Sima’s passion and energy is infectious and her commitment to supporting international students is innovative and authentic,” says Betsy Ludwig, executive director of women’s entrepreneurship in Northeastern’s Office of University Advancement, and one of the organizers of the Innovator Awards. “Her work ethic, combined with her impressive background will create true impact. We look forward to supporting her as she brings her big idea to life!” 

For Bou Jawde, the recognition has been a shot in the arm.

“Getting this award really encouraged me to know that this actually matters,” she says. “This can actually be something that people benefit from. This award really made me want to be more of an advocate, not only for people in developing countries who would like to continue their education, but even more so for other migrants, or communities of color here that might just have similar stories.”

Education has empowered Bou Jawde to reach for more. With Enrich Academia, she hopes she can support and uplift other people who are walking a similar path. 

“Even if we’re just able to help one other person, that would be worth it,” she says. “Although hopefully it’ll be more than one.”