The Upward Trend: Yusuf Jeiroudi on Growing Through the Hard Seasons

There is a quote by Steve Jobs that is a favorite of Yusuf Jeiroudi, a fourth-year chemical engineering major at the University of California, Davis. It says, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

It sticks with him particularly now, in his last undergraduate year, on the cusp of graduating with his Bachelor of Science degree. During a time of deep struggle in his second year, he may not have been able to say that he would reach this point.

Looking back now, Jeiroudi’s dots form a coherent whole, where each point logically connects to the other. He can say that while his second year was difficult — his grades suffered, his mental state was down and he felt isolated from his classmates — it was also the catalyst that facilitated real growth and put him on the path that he is on today.

“When I look back on it, I needed that time to mature and realize that everything that’s a struggle is not necessarily bad,” he said. “There’s always light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how far the light is, the light is going to be there.” 

The Year It Got Heavy

Jeiroudi is of Syrian descent and was born and raised in Abu Dhabi. Not only is he far from his family, but his student visa only allows him to enter and exit the U.S. within the first three months of arrival, meaning that after three months, he is landlocked unless he wants to start the process over again. In the four years since he started at UC Davis, Jeiroudi has only been back to Abu Dhabi to see his family twice.

There’s always light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how far the light is, the light is going to be there." - Yusuf Jeiroudi

Academically, Jeiroudi says his first quarter was tough. The quarter system and the workload took some adjustment, but by the end of the first quarter, he had it down to a science and was doing great. And despite being far from his family, he found the social acclimation simple to navigate.

“My first year was one of the best years of my life,” he said. “Once I knew the UC system, it was an upward trend. I made so many friends, and I got onto the dean’s list at the end of that year.”

In his second year at UC Davis, things started to change. Jeiroudi moved to an apartment far from campus. His schedule was full of STEM-heavy classes — physics, thermodynamics, differential equations and organic chemistry — that were rising in difficulty. 

His grades started to slip. He felt isolated and lonely, and his family was so far away, he didn’t want to burden them with his struggles — they had made many sacrifices to get him to this place. 

Finding Support in Unexpected Places

Two things happened in the second half of that year that turned things around.

First, Jeiroudi leaned into his Muslim faith. He stopped practicing faith as a chore and began to rely on God for everything. The healing process that started was slow and steady, but he was taking steps in the right direction.

Secondly, he was approached by his thermodynamics instructor, Assistant Professor of Teaching in Chemical Engineering Glaucia Helena Carvalho do Prado. She saw that Jeiroudi was struggling with his grades and emailed him to come meet with her and talk.

“Most professors generally invite you to come to office hours,” said Jeiroudi. “I had never seen anyone directly reach out and ask me to come because they want to see me.”

Prado invited Jeiroudi to take a one-unit course she teaches called Emotional Intelligence for Engineers (which is in the process of becoming an official course catalog offering), in which she teaches students how to apply their emotions to problem-solving and decision-making in engineering.

She also encouraged him to meet with his faculty mentor, Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering Tonya Kuhl, who he was paired with as part of the department’s faculty mentorship program. 

“Tonya has the unique ability to show students the ‘glass-half-full’ side of the situation,” Prado said. “The students I pair with Tonya are those who I feel could use improvement in self-esteem and self-confidence.”

The program, which paired undergraduate chemical engineering students with faculty mentors, was developed by the department to enhance faculty interaction with students, particularly those who were struggling.

“We have great peer mentors and teaching assistants,” said Kuhl, “but faculty are really the ones who can help students close the gaps in concepts where things are missed. We want to enable people to succeed, but we don’t know what students are struggling with unless they come talk to us.”

Jeiroudi and Kuhl started meeting about once a month, spending a couple of hours talking and sharing experiences, often walking past the horses and Protégé, the donkey, at the Animal Science Horse Barn. 

For Kuhl, the mentorship program has enabled her to truly walk alongside undergraduate students, some of whom are having a tough time. (Instead of formal pairing, faculty in the mentorship program now designate mentorship hours on their schedule that students can reserve.)  

“Yusuf still has lots of family in Syria and all over the world, and I thought of how difficult that must be for a young person to deal with,” she said. “Our goal is to create an environment that’s supportive for students, even when things are tough. We want them to feel heard, acknowledged and that they’re not alone. That they have a community around them that cares about their struggles and their successes.”

Jeiroudi says it has been an incredibly rewarding experience.

“Developing a relationship with professors and having that sense that the professors know me is really nice,” he said. “Professor Kuhl has been amazing. I can't thank her enough for all the time that she's given me and how much she has helped me.”  

Building Something Better

All of this support combined led Jeiroudi out of his second-year funk and into a better state of mind going into his third year. He says there wasn’t really a specific turning point, but he started paying close attention to his habits and how they can set him up for success. In his third year, he implemented more discipline into his routine, establishing a sleep schedule, managing his studies and using a weekly planner.

Because he has established consistent routines in his life, Jeiroudi is now able to commit to activities he had not been able to before, such as UC Davis Formula Racing. A huge fan of Formula 1 racing, Jeiroudi had always wanted to join, but things would always come up. This year, he’s willing there to be a way.

Looking back at his sophomore year, Jeiroudi can connect the dots of his deep struggle, which led him to a life steeped in faith, to building relationships with faculty members and to newfound self-care that allows him to follow his passions.

When asked what he might say to fellow students going through a difficult season, he said, “Everyone goes through ups and downs. If you are going through tough times, you won’t be able to understand it in the moment, but once you are out of it, you will realize the value of that struggle and how much it has taught you and how much you’ve grown.”