GRIT GREATNESS BECOMES

HANIA MORO ’19, FINANCIAL ECONOMICS

HOMETOWN: CAIRO, EGYPT

Always On The Move

For Hanio Moro, the college experience is all about the journey. Whether that’s a literal journey, like the one she took when she left Egypt to attend school in Maryland, or the metaphorical one, like the road to records crushed and championships won, Hania’s always on the move.

At the 2019 America East Title Meet alone, she broke the school record and won a gold medal in the 1650 freestyle. She credits her success, in part, to the support she gets from her team. And that’s a shift for her.

More Than A Team

“I was taught growing up that swimming is only you,” she says. “But my success here is because the people around me believed in me.” That belief made teammates into friends who support each other 24/7. For Hania, that meant getting together to make oatmeal twice a week and studying at a coffee shop close to campus on sunny Saturday afternoons.

An Entrepreneurial Spirit

Outside the pool, Hania’s focus was on earning her degree in financial economics along with a minor in entrepreneurship. One of her favorite professors was Gib Mason ’95, economics. Hania credits his support and advice for helping her land an internship at a financial advising company.

Setting Big Goals

Thanks to her professors and classes at UMBC, Hania’s got big ideas for the future. First stop? The Olympics. Once that’s done, she’d like to open a bagel shop back home in Cairo, but first, she says, she might come back to UMBC for the graduate program in entrepreneurship.

Making A Splash

For years, the UMBC swimming and diving team has been winning its way into university history. Since 1999, they have amassed 32 championship trophies, not to mention consistent accolades for athletic prowess.