When we think about university, we think about exams, books, credits, and grades.
But some of the most important lessons are never part of the curriculum.
One of the experiences I remember most from my college years in the United States came from my final project in Systems Engineering.
It was a highly complex project. Each team worked on a different topic, sponsored by a major company.
Ours focused on developing an automatic collision-avoidance system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
In class, we weren’t competing against each other—every group had a different project. The real competition would come later, when we’d be evaluated against similar projects from other universities.
That’s why the professor selected five students as project leaders, each responsible for building and leading a team.
I was one of them.
I still remember that moment. He gathered just the five of us in a classroom and explained that we would build our teams by selecting members one at a time, in a predefined order.
A simple exercise.
A powerful leadership test.
In the end, I found myself leading a very unique team: four male teammates—one American, two of Latin background, and one of Muslim faith.
I was the only woman.
The project lasted two semesters—essentially a full academic year.
And it was anything but easy.
There were tensions, technical disagreements, and moments of real pressure. At one point, my leadership was even questioned, which led to conversations with the professor.
But nothing changed.
We kept working together.
And in the end, something unexpected happened.
Our project won both competitions we entered, against similar projects from other universities:
- one at West Point (the United States Military Academy)
- one at the University of Virginia
We also received the highest grade among all projects that year.
A few weeks later, we attended the Engineering Department’s end-of-year banquet—a moment to celebrate the completion of our academic journey.
At the end of the evening, as we were saying goodbye, I went around to shake hands with each team member.
When I reached my teammate of Muslim faith, he couldn’t shake my hand.
His religious beliefs didn’t allow it.
I didn’t know.
If I had, I would have avoided that moment of discomfort for both of us.
For a second, I paused.
And then it clicked.
Over the course of that year, we had worked together, disagreed, navigated cultural and personal differences, completed a complex project, and achieved outstanding results.
And yet not all differences are meant to be resolved.
And they don’t need to disappear for a team to work.
That experience taught me more than any engineering textbook ever could.
It taught me that leadership also means:
- working with people who are very different from us
- navigating perspectives that don’t mirror our own
- moving toward a shared goal despite the differences
These are lessons no academic program can truly teach.
And maybe that’s the real value of experience:
it teaches us what studying alone never will.