The Space Between Knowing and Doing — From Curiosity to Career

At UNSW Business School, Yaseerah Hassan’s journey unfolds at the intersection of curiosity and courage, driven by a deep desire to understand how people learn, think, and grow.

Drawn to UNSW for its blend of innovation, community and possibility, she quickly discovered that the most transformative lessons weren’t found in lectures, instead they emerged from navigating independence, embracing discomfort, and saying yes to opportunities that stretched her.

As she reflects on the experiences that shaped her — from building AI systems to empowering young women through design-led education — her story shows how clarity, intention and courage can turn self-discovery into clear, driven purpose.

I never set out to build a brand or business. I set out to understand myself. 

Growing up in a family deeply passionate about logic and analytical thinking in Dubai’s self improvement-driven culture, I learned early that intelligence isn’t fixed—it’s something  you can develop and share. I came to understand it as the key that opens doors often seen as locked or reserved for only a few with hard-to-access skills. 

This belief became the forefront of my obsession with learning how to think better; how  habits, memory, emotional regulation, burnout, and tiny one-percent decisions shape the working brain. I wanted to know why some people thrive, and why others collapse under the exact same pressure. And more quietly, I wanted to get smarter.

When I arrived at UNSW Business School in 2023 as an international student beginning a bachelor’s degree in information systems and data analytics, all that theory endorsed reality. 

For the first time, I was alone. I’d never cooked, cleaned, or  even made my own bed. 

The noise of surviving adulthood swallowed the clarity I hoped university would bring.  My academic goals suffered, not because I didn’t care, but because everything in my  environment was pulling energy away from the learning. 

That survival pushed me to look for holistic solutions; towards systems thinking. I needed structure not just to organise my life, but to navigate the fight for my own attention in a cognitively overwhelming period of time. I brought some practices with me from high school, the journals, the whiteboard wallpaper— but suddenly they weren’t enough. One day I flipped and panicked that the maintenance was becoming too hard for this new life and that my systems were outdated. I needed to digitise everything.

So, I ripped everything off my walls and started scanning years of journals and notes. I digitised everything: calendars, reflection journals, workflows — to create mental space. I began dividing my days into dedicated blocks for deep work, rest, and reflection based on hormones ,neuroscience; a practice known as time-blocking. These practices sharpened my focus and structured my chaos, and without knowing it, I was building clean data foundations that prepared me to experiment with tools like AI.

The AI Shift That Rewired My Mind

I became obsessed with philosophy and enrolled in the AI in Philosophy elective at UNSW, which completely shifted how I saw myself. I learned that what energises me are the things aligned with my core beliefs — authenticity, learning, connection.

And what drains me are pursuits misaligned with those — material pressure, overwork, external validation.

That realisation became the bridge between my internal transformation and what would  soon become my external work. 

The Workshop That Became a Mirror

Then came a conversation that shifted everything, once more.

Rhiannon Tout, EDI Project Officer, and Paul Macmullen, a ‘design your life expert’,  UNSW Business School, invited me to design a session for the 2025 Girls in Business  Camp. The brief was simple: “create something empowering and accessible for high school students while exploring  AI’s evolving role for women.” 

The Phone Call That Redirected My Career

Months later, I took a week of leave from my job in UNSW Admissions in a panic to find a graduate role (I hadn’t applied at all except 2 or 3 autofilled linkedin ones). The first morning, a recruiter called with questions about AI and information about a ‘1 day per week AI internship’. The next day, the CEO of the company called me directly to ask further questions and set up an interview.

It was clear they didn’t deeply understand AI—yet and were looking for a taster. So I saw an opportunity to convince them to turn it into 2 days to meet my WIL requirement.

I researched all weekend and built a three-slide pitch: 

1. Everything You Need to Know About AI
2. Who I Am
3. How I Will Transform Your Company

They asked me during the interview, so whats your career path? Where does this ideally take you? I said maybe digital transformation consulting in a few years….

I walked out with a job offer—not as an intern,  but as their Digital Transformation Consultant.

It was surreal. Weeks earlier I had been reading KPMG’s Futuresphere Report, admiring  the growth of game-changing technologies to accelerate the future of businesses. Now I was designing AI strategy, conducting systems audits, building custom GPT agents, and training an entire company on AI literacy.

That role taught me: technology is only half the story. The other half is clarity—the  human ability to think, adapt, and lead with intention. 

UNSW as the Catalyst