Otmane Sabir (Morocco) | Class of 2021
To step up and organise Orientation Week at Jacobs University Bremen takes grit, effort and immense amounts of dedication. For Otmane Sabir, one of the main organisers, this meant a lot of commitment, but his passion for organising events came first. Otmane is a second-year Computer Science major at Jacobs. His mission? “O-week is the best way to bring out the spirit of the freshmen. The better you introduce them to what they’re going to experience at Jacobs, the better set they are for the future.”
The organising process of O-week takes nearly half a year – selecting the main organisers, then the organisers, followed by the student advisors. It wasn’t always easy for Otmane to bring the entire team together, but he was also grateful for everybody’s vision and enthusiasm. This has also been a huge learning experience for him: “Jacobs really teaches you that not everything in life is a one-man job. You need other people.”
Otmane himself arrived at Jacobs in 2018, and to him, Orientation Week was excitingly shocking – like he was numbed by the plethora of activities and everything going on around him. “It made me realise that I was in a new place and that a whole new adventure was about to begin.” Everything he learnt just about a year ago was what inspired him to take up the responsibility this year.
A very meticulous person, Otmane, along with the other organisers had everything carefully laid out, and they could only hope that all of it went according to plan. The most nerve-wracking task for him was all the spontaneous decisions he was required to make any time something went awry.
After months of organising and executing the grand finale, Otmane may be tired, but this is not the last of him in an organising position. “I’m looking forward to Jacobs Hack in November and that will conclude my work for the year. But I’m definitely going to take up more positions like this in my last year at Jacobs!” said Otmane, smiling from ear to ear.
His one message to incoming students? “Adapt. Go out and talk to everyone you meet. Don’t worry too much about feeling odd or out of place – everyone is new here. Step out of your shell and enjoy as much as you can.”
In spite of all the stress that came with organising O-week 2019, Otmane – an, aspiring Artificial Intelligence researcher – would do it all over again.
By Ushashi Basu (India) | Class of 2020
