Osama Aduib

Osama Aduib’s father was less than enthused when his son revealed his interest in political science. “For [my father], anything other than the hard sciences was not considered a real science,” he said. “I believe that the actual quote was, ‘If political science is what you want to do, then I’m not paying for your schooling,’ to which I reminded him that I was paying for my school anyway, so it didn’t really matter.”

Osama broke up his biochemistry and political science studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago with semesters off to earn money for school. “I’d go for a semester on, and then take a semester off, at which point I’d take two jobs on, ’cause during the semester I always had at least one full-time job,” he said. He worked at an art supply store, waited tables at a Persian restaurant, and took on overnight shifts at gas stations before landing a part-time job at the Four Seasons in Chicago, which turned out to be the beginning of his career in hospitality management; currently, he is the General Manager of the High Line Hotel in New York City.

While he was juggling multiple jobs to pay for school, he was “questioning all of it. There were definitely some moments there where I thought perhaps it might be best just to leave it all behind. But you put your head down and you push through it, and that’s really what I think college is all about. It’s the ability to learn how to learn and to learn how to persevere, and to learn how to push through, meet a deadline, meet deadlines, and understand that it all doesn’t happen in one day,” he said.