When Mostafa Mubarak stepped up to the podium at the University of Kentucky’s May 2026 Commencement Ceremony, he was one of only four students personally selected by UK President Eli Capilouto to represent the entire Class of 2026, and the only one chosen from the engineering college. Mubarak, an international student from Alexandria, Egypt, was graduating with three degrees at once. He earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science simultaneously. Though he arrived in the United States at just 17 with USD 1,000 (EGP 52,900) and a modest command of English, he still carried an ambition that most people his age did not have. Where most students are advised to take 19 credit hours per semester, Mubarak regularly took 22, with special dispensation from his academic advisor. “I came here. I didn’t know much English. Kentucky was the right choice out of thousands. And I would do it a million times,” he said in his commencement speech. “By every logical measure, I could have let myself be received as an outsider. Instead, I decided to take everything that this place has to offer unapologetically,” he…
