After crossing the Convocation stage at Brock Tuesday afternoon, Hamza and Zade Pasha (BBA ’23) can safely say they’ve crossed everything off their Brock bucket list — together.

The twin brothers from Mississauga completed Goodman’s double degree program that saw them each earn a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Brock and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Global Business from Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland. The two were active entrepreneurs during their studies and Monster Pitch finalists, involved student leaders and business case competitors. Zade was also a student-athlete with Brock’s fencing team.

When they returned from Ireland, they both secured co-op work terms with the United Nations (UN) through a partnership between the Goodman School of Business and the United Nations Association in Canada (UNA-Canada).

“We tell all our students during orientation it’s up to them to make the most of their experience with us,” said Goodman Dean Barry Wright. “Zade and Hamza not only added impressive skills and experiences to the resumé, but they have also become thoughtful, socially responsible leaders that are tremendous ambassadors for our School.”

Zade Pasha during a tour of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

However, it was a lesson in Wright’s leadership class that inspired the twins on their own leadership journey.

“The lesson Dean Wright taught was one of empathetic leadership — that leaders go first,” Hamza said. “That lesson has always stuck with us and inspired us to always take the leap of faith and to always inspire those around us.”

The brothers took the global perspective they gained through their time at DCU and their experience as immigrants to Canada from Pakistan into their UN co-op terms. Due to Government of Canada travel restrictions, both co-op terms were completed virtually. They considered the chance to work at the UN as a dream come true.

Zade’s UN co-op term saw him work as a Junior Consultant for UN Habitat out of their global headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, on their flagship Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Cities program.

“We worked to help cities become safer, more inclusive, resilient and sustainable and created what essentially became a global information network of best sustainability practices,” Zade said.

For Hamza’s UN co-op position, he joined the International Organization of Migration based out of Romania as a Junior Consultant working as a data analyst and research assistant at the beginning of Russia-Ukrainian war. At the time, Romania had a million people come into the country in the span of 30 days and his team was making recommendations to the EU, Ukrainian and Romanian governments on what to do with the influx of refugees.

“What we got to do was work with the data and really take something that at one point was numbers and communicate it in a way that has a tangible impact on the lives of people,” he said.

When the restrictions lifted, the Pashas were able to visit the office in Romania as well as the UN headquarters in New York.

Hamza Pasha looks at the gates of the UN International Organization of Migration in Romania.

The next step on the brothers’ journey is to continue their studies in a post-graduate computer science program at the University of British Columbia.

“We’ve been interested in entrepreneurship for so long, and at a certain point technology and entrepreneurship become kind of synonymous,” Zade said.

When Hamza reflects on the decision to choose Brock, he compared Goodman to a high-growth start-up rather than a company that’s been established for hundreds of years.

“Are you a product of your environment? Or is your environment a product of you,” he said. “At Goodman, your experience can shape and help pave the paths for others and I wanted my environment to be a product of me, to do things and make an impact beyond the scope of the classes I took.”