Student Spotlight: How Fahim broke out of his comfort zone

"I quickly realised that if I didn't change something, my entire uni experience would just continue on autopilot."

Published on the 10 February 2026

A student from the UNSW Co-NNECTIONS Professional Development Program

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Uni on autopilot

It wasn’t that long ago when I was trying to navigate university without feeling like an outsider, all while trying to feel like I belonged.

My name is Fahim and I’m a third-year student at UNSW who entered through the Gateway Admission program, which is an entry scheme designed for students who are underrepresented in higher education. To be honest, in my first year, I was the embodiment of going through uni on “autopilot.” On paper, I was doing well, getting good grades and staying on top of my job. However, I found myself living the same day over and over. I’d commute, go to work, go home and study. I also felt pretty isolated, especially after dealing with a health complication early in the year.

Seeing everyone else hanging out on the field or doing fun uni things made me feel like a foreigner in a place that’s meant to be my own. I’d constantly tell myself the commute was too long for the event or that people already had their own cliques that were nothing like mine. Even at the start of my second year, I tried to break that cycle by exploring societies, but I kept giving myself the same excuses. I was afraid of being different, and I struggled to express myself properly in public.

I quickly realised that if I didn't change something, my entire uni experience would just continue on autopilot. I didn't just want to grow professionally. I wanted to grow overall as a person. I decided that if I wanted more, I had to be willing to walk into situations of uncertainty without a clear outcome.

That’s when I saw the alert email for the Co-NNECTIONS launch.

Pushing out of my comfort zone

The launch was a co-led workshop with NIDA on the basics of networking. Before this, I thought networking was just a transactional “thing” where you talk to people at a company purely so they hire you. To be honest, it felt fake and intimidating.

At the workshops, I was hyper-focused on the basics. How’s my tone of voice? Where do I put my hands? The facilitators taught us how our body language communicates who we are before we even say a word.

Fortunately, we got to practice immediately in a speed networking round, and that’s when it clicked: I wasn’t the only one who found themselves in a similar place. Meeting other Gateway students, some who live just as far as I do, made me feel like I had found a community at university. I realised networking isn’t just about “getting a job.” It’s about being genuine and putting yourself out there to another person without having clear expectations for what you want back as opportunities or connections naturally occur.

The view for most of my first year in the Law building.

My team in the CoNX PD Program.

“The Professional Fahim”

The launch event gave me the confidence I needed to explore further, so I decided to join the Co-NNECTIONS Professional Development Program in Term 2. For me, this is where things got way more real. I had the pleasure of directly working with industry partners from the NSW Government to co-design and co-run a networking event.

When I first met the team, I was so tense! I thought I had to be "The Professional Fahim" 24/7, but as we worked together on the project, the "scary professional" mask slipped. We actually got to know each other, and I realised they were just regular people.

Choosing to take off that mask required a real commitment to my goal of embracing uncertainty. Again, it was scary but taking that step led to some of the best things to happen in that year. Once the program finished, my group took the initiative to invite our industry partners for a coffee chat to strengthen the bond we’d already built.

Our team with our Industry Partners from the NSW Government.

Everyone is just figuring it out

Looking back, I can see how much that "foreigner" feeling has changed. I no longer feel like one. Everyone at university is simply striving to have their own experience in their own way, so I've stopped seeing "cliques" and started seeing the wider picture. We can all identify with that. I feel more at ease knowing that we are all just individuals seeking our own path. Being "different" is actually the one thing we all have in common.

My future course this year is to remain even more comfortable with uncertainty. I became a Gateway Ambassador and a START@UNSW Peer Mentor precisely because of that mindset. I now want to share my experience with others who might be in a similar lonely situation. To be honest, I probably would have chosen a totally different path, one that lacked the self-assurance to take on these mentoring roles if it weren't for what I've learned from the program and this general pathway of growth.

If you truly want to do more, be comfortable first in taking that first step into uncertainty and just enjoy the process. Opportunities naturally gift the curious.