By Matthew Cimitile, University Communications and Marketing
Abdul Muqeet Khawaja came to USF St. Petersburg thousands of miles from home, without knowing a soul and challenged with adjusting to a new culture. He is now leaving with a 4.0 GPA, a network of close friends and a host of accomplishments, including a job at a Fortune 500 company.
“My college experience really broke me out of my shell and made me believe in myself,” Khawaja said. “I was pushed out of my comfort zone and discovered leadership traits I didn’t know I had.”
An outgoing youth from a tight-knit family, Khawaja loved to travel and explore. His parents championed education to him and his two siblings, and from an early age Khawaja was intrigued about pursuing higher education abroad.
He arrived in Tampa Bay in August of 2021, deciding on the University of South Florida because of its highly rated business programs and generous scholarship package. But the cultural shock of his new surroundings initially led him to retreat inwardly and lose confidence. He felt isolated.
It was only later in that first year, when he proactively engaged with others on campus through class and clubs and in the city of St. Petersburg through events and social gatherings, that he started to find his place.
“Seeing students, professors and others in the city approach me and accept my background started to make me feel part of a community here. I became comfortable with the people around me and that made me more confident in myself,” Khawaja said. “Those initial connections were huge in getting used to this city that I now call home.”
As campus governor, Khawaja interacted with many city leaders and officials, including St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch.
He emerged as a student leader, serving as co-chair on the Judy Genshaft Honors College Student Council and deputy financial officer in Student Government. In 2023, he became USF St. Petersburg’s campus governor, where he worked to represent and amplify the voice of the student body. He took a particular interest in international student issues and how to bridge gaps and provide services so such students felt welcomed once they arrived.
Heavily involved in student life on campus, Khawaja was also intensely focused on his studies. Intrigued by technology and systems, he enrolled as a Business Analytics and Information Systems major. Realizing a gift for numbers and solving math problems, he added an Accounting major to further delve into the intersection of data, finance and security.
In the summer of 2023, he earned a sought-after internship at Jabil, a global company providing engineering, manufacturing and supply chain solutions. USF has a long-standing partnership with St. Petersburg-based Jabil, which includes a USF Jabil Innovation Institute that provides experiential learning opportunities for students to compete in the job market.
At Jabil, Khawaja worked for the financial reporting team implementing software to use for financial statements. He assisted in training employees in over 30 countries and at more than 100 different locations on the system.
“What I learned was adapting to the situation at hand, how to work on teams with people who may have different opinions and perspectives than you and how to communicate and work together through those differences,” he said.
Khawaja has been at Jabil ever since. He continued to work for the company part-time as a technical accounting intern throughout the academic year. When he graduates this semester, Khawaja will become a full-time financial analyst with the company, working on accounting needs for property lease agreements while further training employees on financial statement software.
Now graduating with two bachelor’s degrees, and the first in his family to do so internationally, Khawaja looks back at those first days of arriving in his new home with pride in how much he has grown.
“It was both a challenging experience overcoming that loneliness of being someplace new, but also an exciting time, living in a residence hall for the first time, soaking up the Florida sun,” he said. “I’ve grown tremendously and have done so because of the many mentors in my life – my parents, my academic and student life advisors, professors and even friends – who have made both big and small impacts, each a positive difference