Faces of CNM: Ahmed Saoudi

It’s easy to spot Ahmed Saoudi from a distance or in a crowd. The 20-year-old from Cairo, Egypt, is one of the most exuberant people you’ll ever meet and has a positivity about him that’s infectious. 

Part of his confidence comes from traveling the world. Ahmed grew up in 10 different countries (everywhere from South Africa to Turkey) between the ages of 10-18 because his dad worked internationally. He speaks four different languages—Spanish, Arabic, English, and Farsi—and his English is so good you’d think he was a native speaker.

Here at CNM Ahmed is studying Engineering and then he plans to transfer to UNM for a bachelor’s in the same field. Then it’s onto a masters, hopefully at another school in the United States. When he’s done, Ahmed wants to launch a motorcycle company that builds sports bikes. He’s rebuilt motorcycles from the ground up and loves the thrill of constructing something from scratch that has the power to rocket him down the road. 

“It's incredible to build something yourself that can give you that much freedom,” he says. 

All of Ahmed’s travel made his transition to life at CNM and New Mexico pretty easy. He’s well-loved in the Global Education Office where he has a non-need work study job, and you’ll see him walking around campus with a camera that he uses to shoot photos for that department’s Instagram feed. 

You’d never know it, but one of Ahmed’s other talents is free-diving—a sport where you dive as deep as possible without any oxygen. He took a class in Indonesia and was immediately hooked. He’s practiced all over the world and his current record is 42 meters, or about 138 feet. This summer he hopes to practice in the Blue Hole diving spot outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. 

“I know it sounds a little crazy, but free-diving is one of the most relaxing things you can do,” Ahmed says. “You get in this meditative state and it’s almost like you’re flying.”