Ambitious students – Wahhab Hassoo's inspiring fight for human rights

From aviation to human rights   

"I first started with a degree in Aviation. After this, I wanted to join the Air Force and continue studying at university. The first couple of months were so challenging! I kept thinking: what am I doing to myself to pursue this study? Then COVID came along. I personally experienced a lot of stress and suffered from depression. I started exercising a lot, which made me feel better, but everything shut down. I was at home with my parents, two brothers and sister. That wasn't easy at times.   

While studying Aviation, I was already actively involved in human rights. The Islamic State had gained control of our soil in Iraq. They had killed many of my people because of our religion, including my family. I wanted to call attention to this in the Netherlands. What I was studying was very different from what I was doing in my day-to-day life, and this contradiction started to drain my energy more and more.  

An acquaintance of mine won the Nobel Peace Prize, and I was invited to the ceremony in Oslo. The person I was with said, "Wahhab, if your heart's truly in human rights, you should do something with that. What you're studying now is completely different, and I don't see you fitting into that work."   

That moment changed everything. I realized that a degree in Aviation was not what I wanted to do, so I decided to quit. I passed my propaedeutic year and planned on continuing my studies at university. In the first year, I studied Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen and Political Science in Amsterdam. I was mainly into Political Science because I could achieve more with that than with Law.    

One thing I advise future students is to stay close to yourself. That's the most important thing. You'll be involved in it for the next 40 years, so choose a degree that will bring you something good. If you finish a study and do nothing with it, it's a waste. I didn't discover that until a year after I started Aviation."  

Management mindset   

"I was very strict with myself. My priorities were my foundation and my studies, which I saw as one. I already had practical knowledge because I had experienced immigration myself. Now, all I needed was theory and analytical thinking.  

During the first few months of Political Science, there were times when I didn't know what we were doing. We learned about the state and political parties, and then we talked about national and climate issues. It was necessary, but I couldn't always relate to it. Whenever we talked about immigration, of course, I was very interested. I was invited to give guest lectures about immigration to master students several times, even though I just started studying myself.  

Next to my studies, I was constantly engaged in activism and tried to combine all that. Together with other volunteers, I created a foundation that I have been working on full-time for nine years. On Instagram, I started to host live sessions. Every day, I invited a guest with whom I would chat. I would mainly talk to people working on something big or meaningful, someone who could be of great significance to society, like Kaag, Jetten, and Omtzigt.    

I created a management mindset with a clear focus: what do I want to achieve today? I planned my study hours first, and I could fill the rest myself. I missed parties and things like that, but it eventually resulted in something positive.  

Even when I finally moved to Amsterdam, I still visited my family regularly to keep an eye on them. I wanted to see how they were doing. When I would leave for Amsterdam, they would ask me, "Why don't you stay with us?" I explained that I needed to do a lot of work for my studies. That was a heavy burden for me because I could tell how much it affected them.   

It's crucial to find a way to cope with stress. For me, it was exercise. Many of my peers deal with stress because of debt and the coronavirus, for example. I came here with nothing; I didn't speak the language, and there was a genocide against my people. With all these setbacks, it's important to keep trying. That can be very difficult, but human beings are strong."  

All the time for myself   

"When I first began my studies, I traveled back and forth from my home in Arnhem. My fellow students asked me, "Where do you get this discipline? Go find a room!" But I couldn't find anything in Amsterdam. Everything was extremely expensive here, and I wasn't comfortable living with others.     

I got to know Student Experience through a friend of mine. He told me to try it and apply for a studio. This was during COVID, so more studios were becoming available. I remember it well. It was a Thursday morning when I got a notification. Back then, it was first come, first serve, which I liked. That's how I got my studio right away.     

What's so unique about Student Experience is that you have your own studio. And if you want to hang out with students or other peers, plenty of them are around you.  

Without Student Experience, it would have been impossible for me to finish my studies. Everything was closed during COVID, and my parents' house was very crowded. I didn't have a separate space where I could study and focus. When I moved to Student Experience, I had all the time to myself. I could find quietness here."  

In five years  

"I am reaching for the highest possible achievement within politics. For me, that may be a diplomat, and for someone else, that may be becoming the next prime minister. I think it's about having something in the back of my mind that I want to achieve and then actually achieving it. That is the highest possible achievement. When I think about where I want to be in five years, I would be a minister, secretary of state, diplomat, or ambassador supervising a mission in the Middle East."