Students hold many titles during their four years at NYU Abu Dhabi. They are captain of one thing, member of another and perhaps even a volunteer for something completely different. One title not held by many students, however, is that of entrepreneur.

The dearth of self-proclaimed entrepreneurs seems to stem from two ideas: one, many don’t consider themselves entrepreneurs until they sell something they invested personal time in creating and two, the process of investing time in a product one plans to sell is itself an arduous affair. Nevertheless, there are NYUAD graduates who have successfully managed to start their own businesses while they were still students. A community of individuals along with a pool of university resources exists to help encourage students to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

Blacksmith Coffee is a business started by NYUAD graduate Stephen Underwood from the class of 2014. Although the company was officially established after Underwood graduated, it was first started as a SIG in 2012. It was further incubated through the Vice Chancellor’s office and then opened its first retail space on campus. NYUAD sports the liberal arts education that allows for anyone to start a business.

“Whether you are an engineer or a history student – the skills of asking deep questions about the world, about society, about people, are fundamental to creating a product that has true value to this world,” said Underwood.

Mohamed Amine Belarbi, class of 2016, is an example of a recent tech-based entrepreneur. Belarbi co-founded and heads VUL9, a cyber-security company that takes ethical hackers in the MENA region and directs their talents towards helping secure private and public institutions in the GCC against cyber threats. They hack companies, help them find where their security flaws are and work with them to fix them.

Belarbi started his cyber-security company during his senior year, after meeting his co-founder Mohamed Zakariae El Khdime during NYUAD’s Hackathon. Today VUL9’s portfolio of clients includes Careem, Forbes, Talabat, Wamda Capital and Abu Dhabi University among others. The company also just raised a new round of funding that valued VUL9 at $3.15 million. Throughout his time at NYUAD, Belarbi had a series of entrepreneurial endeavours, most notably his publication Gulf Elite, a magazine specializing in youth related topics such as entertainment, sports, fashion, business and more.

“I [set] an academic goal for myself, a 3.6 GPA, and under-loaded my senior year. All the extra time I freed up by not aiming for a perfect GPA allowed me to follow my entrepreneurial ventures,” said Belarbi. Although some might think academics would get in the way of becoming an entrepreneur, there are classes at NYUAD that are beneficial to developing an entrepreneurial mindset. Even if students simply want to try their hand at something out of their comfort zone, NYUAD supports many avenues of learning.

“I think we are really fortunate that we live in a world where you can learn almost anything online. My advice for students who want to take the first step towards learning how to code is to access all these resources online such as Lynda [which is available to NYUAD students for free],” said Hazem Ibrahim, a senior majoring in Computer Engineering. “If you have space for electives, I’d suggest trying out Intro to Computer Science or Mashups as introductory courses for coding and web design respectively.”

Courses like Design and Innovation, Creativity and Innovation and a J-Term such as Innovation and Entrepreneurship come highly recommended for students who want an opportunity to develop business plans, products, and get the support of the university.

Through group projects, assignments and interacting outside of class, NYUAD fosters a sense of collaboration. With no end to the talent on campus, there is always someone willing to join in or otherwise support an idea. Three seniors — Hazem Ibrahim, Mounir ElGharabawy, and Ali Abou El Atta — worked together to create a course review app.

“We wanted to create a centralized database with all the reviews that were previously submitted on our internal Facebook Page (Room of Requirement). On top of this database, we are looking to create both an IOS and Android app, as well as revamping the website that currently exists,” said Ibrahim.

Of course, collaboration is never easy. Although the three seniors are close friends, Ibrahim advised that in any joint effort to create a quality product, “it’s important to know if [you and your group] are compatible on a professional level too.”

Not only is it crucial to work on developing skills through courses and activities on campus, but also to continue to build on that knowledge through internship experiences.

“I believe for [Mounir, Ali and I], the skills for developing applications came from learning on our own or through the internships we’ve completed this summer. I think it’s very important for students to not be satisfied with only learning things in the classroom,” noted Ibrahim. NYUAD’s culture supports this idea of constant innovation and creativity and boasts spaces for learning outside of essays, assignments and exams.

“The Engineering Design Studio, the StartAD program and the business and entrepreneurship SIGs on campus are amazing,” said Dan Mountcastle, former head of the Entrepreneurship SIG and graduate of the class of 2017, adding that NYUAD has a community where there is always an expert on campus for any topic one might want to explore.

One of the most important aspects of starting a business is networking and making connections.

“After discussing your friend’s budding business, you may know the person that your friend absolutely needs to meet, and you can make [that] introduction,” said Mountcastle.

According to rising sophomore Jaisal Friedman, Vice President of the Business and Finance Society on campus, the community for budding entrepreneurs is a supportive one, although there is space for improvement.

“I think the opportunities for true business development are sometimes limited to engineering or computer science. There doesn’t exist as much support for non-product oriented ideas,” Friedman said.

From brainstorming to troubleshooting a product, students can play an important role in developing their peer’s businesses.

“I think it would be really cool if we could start an on-campus crowd funding and idea sharing platform specifically for student start-ups,” offered Friedman.

There are always plenty of opportunities to get involved in a project at NYUAD. So whether you want to start a business around your delicious cupcakes, a new innovation, or artwork, know that there is a place for you on campus. There’s no better time to start than now.