When Computer Science senior Noor Elsonbaty joined the CoachRICE program at Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders, he had a goal.
“I wanted to leave CoachRICE with a strong and robust framework,” Elsonbaty told Rice News, “to... lead and coach international students from different backgrounds when they [come] to Rice.” For Elsonbaty, who comes to Rice from Alexandria, Egypt, it meant more than just earning a certificate. He pushed to reach a higher level of coaching, and made Rice history getting there when he became the first student to be honored with an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credential.
Receiving the ACC credential is a long, intensive process. Elsonbaty had to log 100 hours of coaching experience—70 of them paid—before even being eligible. The reason he began this journey was to prepare for potentially becoming the director of I-PREP, the International Preparation and Regulation Education Program at Rice. But even when he decided to skip that path, he stayed on at CoachRICE because it’s “so valuable to have at such an early stage.”
Soon, Elsonbaty is headed to New York City for a job with a software company that combines his computer science degree with the ACC credential. It needs help identifying problems with their software, which is right up his alley. He knows he’s prepared for this with the countless hours studying for his Computer Science degree and the 100 hours invested in his credential. He knows he’s ready to tackle it all, because it comes down to a single idea.
“I’m not solving their problem. I’m helping them solve their own problem,” Elsonbaty said.