Alumni Spotlight: Advising on Sustainability at Dream Job

Alumna Shefaa Mansour, Class of 2017 MSc in Water and Environmental Engineering graduate, is applying the skills and knowledge she gained as a student at Masdar Institute at Khalifa University at her dream job at Ernst & Young (EY) as a Climate Change & Sustainability Consultant.

“Working at EY is an opportunity of a lifetime. I owe where I am today to Masdar Institute at Khalifa University. They put so much effort into forging strategic partnerships and relationships with organizations like EY, to give their students real-world, hands-on experiences,” Shefaa shared.

For the past three years, Shefaa has worked as a consultant with EY MENA’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services Team. She helps companies understand the risks and opportunities arising from climate change and sustainability issues. Her work is especially important in light of recent climate change reports that reveal how climate change is accelerating at a faster rate than previously thought, and how critical it is to take urgent action to avert dangerous global temperature increases.

“Many of the skills I gained at Masdar Institute have supported me in my career at EY. This includes research and communication skills as well as learning to work in a multi-cultural environment in a comfortable and respectable manner.

“EY is truly an exceptional organization, especially in terms of how they are protecting their employees and their wellbeing during the coronavirus crisis,” she said.

In 2018, EY sent Mansour and her colleagues on a hike to Mount Kilimanjaro. She described it as an “absolute dream and an experience of a lifetime.” This was part of a personal leadership and development exercise organized by EY in order to promote and install team building as a core principle within its people.

Among her most notable experiences at EY, is the time she visited a school for people of determination. EY provided the community of low-income students with computers to support their education.