Traveling has been a lifelong passion for the author that has contributed greatly to their personal and professional development. It opened their mind from a young age by exposing them to diverse cultures. During college and after, international experiences through cultural exchange programs and work further fueled their interest. Professionally, the author's multilingual skills and cultural adaptability, gained through travel, provided career advantages. Personally, travel cultivated independence, perspective-taking, language learning, adaptability, financial planning, and enduring life lessons. It has taken the author to over 35 countries and provided invaluable self-knowledge and a broader worldview.

1. Show us an activity you
enjoy doing. Tell us how
you think it contributes to
your personal and
professional development.
Engy Magdy Youssef Amr

2. I enjoy doing quite a
few things. Taking great
photos, volunteering for
a cause, bending my
body into unusual
shapes aka yoga
asnas, playing my guitar
and exploring new lands
and cultures. Out of all
these I chose to talk to
you about the one
activity that I believe
has most contributed to
the person I am today.

4. My Childhood
My interest in travel started ever since I was as
young as I could remember. I attended an
international school during my first years at
school. Students all came from different
ethnic, racial, religious and cultural backgrounds
.Being exposed to people of other cultures as a
child has opened my mind as an adult in more
ways than I can understand .It was responsible
for my curiosity about cultures that are different
from my own and my inspiration to travel the
world.

5. During college, I
participated in a few
cultural exchange
programs run by an EU
initiative for youth.

6. By the time I graduated It was clear to me that one of
the most important criteria of the job I was looking for
was international exposure

7. In less than 2
years after
graduation I
had started
travelling
professionally
and personally
and haven’t
stopped since.

8. How travelling Contributes to my
personal and professional
development

9. Independence
My first experience living totally on
my own was in Germany. Leaving
everything that was familiar to me
behind and moving to a new country
was a terrifying experience at the
beginning. Going through it
however, taught me to become more
independent and self sufficient. It
gave me the confidence to pursue all
of the overseas opportunities that
crossed my path afterwards, and set
on my independent personal travels.

10. Henry Miller once said that One’s destination is never a place, but a new
way of seeing things. Meeting people from different walks of life has
given me a broader outlook to the world, and has enabled me to see
myself through other people’s eyes. Travelling made me realize that
whatever happens in my life there are always endless possibilities out
there. Finally, travelling taught me that no matter how different we may
seem, we have more commonalties that differences and that fact has
been the building block of my personal and professional relationships.
A Different Perspective

11. My parents gave me the opportunity to grow up trilingual.
Travelling gave me a passport to the world;
An opportunity to learn 3 more languages.
& Communications

12. & Communications
Travelling instilled within me a desire
to communicate with those who do
not speak the same languages I do. I
realized that I still remember some
German from high school during an
exchange program I attended & I got
encouraged to signup for a German
course. A few months later when an
opportunity opened up for a project
in Germany, My knowledge of
German gave my an edge over my
colleagues & I was chosen for the
project. I continued to study German
in the open university in Frankfurt.

13. & Communications
I have always known that Spanish is the second
most spoken language after English, but I had
only realized the importance of learning
Spanish after my First trip to Spain. When I
moved to London the following year I got
myself a language exchange partner. A year
later I enrolled at the University of Granada for
a Spanish Course.

14. & Communications
When I started working in Africa I noticed a strong need in the market
for Portuguese speakers with a strong IT background to serve the
Portuguese-speaking countries in the region. Later when I was
backpacking in Latin America, I noticed that my knowledge of Spanish
enabled me to communicate with Brazilians. So decided to invest in
learning Portuguese. I set off to Rio for a months long intensive
Portuguese course & upon my return I got the opportunity to drive one
of Microsoft’s marketing engines in French and Portuguese Africa.

15. Adaptability
& Endurance
Traveling pushes me outside of my comfort zone . When I travel I
need to constantly adapt to my new surroundings. I have to try
new things that I usually wouldn’t try. My ability to adapt to
different work cultures had made me easily do business across 15
different countries spread across 3 continents.

16. Planning
Weather I’m traveling on a business
trip, backpacking, studying abroad
or relocating to another city, When
I travel I am always on a fixed
budget. Through continuous
tracking of my financials, traveling
has helped me define my financial
priorities and taught me how to
make the best out of the budget I
have. It has taught me what and
when to compromise, how to
manage unexpected costs .

17. My love for traveling has
taken me to over 35
countries, It has given me
some of the most
valuable experiences in
my life and taught me
most of what I know
about my self and made
me see the world with a
different perspective.

18. Disclaimer: I do not own copyrights for the photos used in this presentation