A team from American University of Sharjah (AUS) won the "Company of the Year Award—University Track" at the National Company Program Competition organized by Injaz UAE, a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, a non-profit business education organization. The announcement was made during a special ceremony held virtually on May 19. 

The event is an entrepreneurship competition designed to help participants start their own business, supported by guidance from consultants and professionals from leading multinational institutions. The participants take part in numerous workshops and meetings to dive into the start-up world, organize and operate actual enterprising companies and learn about real life business processes and functions.

The AUS team won for its business idea, entitled Sharara, which aimed to match big companies to up-and-coming product designers in order to create innovative, tailor-made solutions.

The winning AUS team consisted of Huzaifa Masood, a finance major; Mishkat Ahmed, Noor Eldegwy and Ruba Saeed, design management majors; Suaad Elmi, a chemical engineering major; and Wahi Almashdali, a management major.

Speaking about the competition, Nour Eldegwy, said: "I learned a lot from the Company Program and developed my leadership skills that included delegating tasks with empathy, working under pressure and resilience. This experience has opened up more doors for us to launch our startup, Sharara."

The final stages of the competition were a challenge for me because of university submissions and exams,” said Huzaifa Masood. “I was about to drop out but then realized I couldn't leave all the work I had put into this over the past five to six months. To me this was a seed I had been nurturing and the responsibility of taking care of this plant and what it could turn into as a full-fledged tree is what kept me going. Perseverance is what matters, I feel. My advice to others would be to set a goal and then persevere with it until it successfully materializes."

"It was a wonderful experience. It would be difficult to pick just one or two things that we learned as it helped us develop us in so many aspects. We are lucky to have been give this great opportunity," said Mishkat Ahmed.