She grew up between the Bon Voyage neighborhood in Nice and Tourrette Levens, stringing rackets for some of the greatest tennis champions at the Monte Carlo Country Club before completing an internship at the United Nations in New York. At 26 years old, this Nice native wants to embody a message of hope for all young people, particularly the underprivileged.
A schooling fraught with obstacles
Born and educated in the Bon Voyage neighborhood of Nice, she later joined her grandparents in Tourrette Levens when her mother fell ill, before returning to complete her studies at Guillaume Apollinaire high school, an institution classified in a priority education zone (ZEP) of the neighborhood.
“You have teachers who can limit your ambitions,” she recalls. Yet the young woman chose to turn it into a driving force: “When people tried to limit me, I wanted to prove the opposite. Twice as much.”
She finds this determination in a conviction she sets as a fundamental principle: that when you come from a working-class neighborhood, education is the key. “We know very well that what can save you is education,” she summarizes.
From Monte Carlo Country Club to the United Nations
To finance her studies, Nawal Nourid took on multiple student jobs, including stringing rackets at the Monte Carlo Country Club. There she rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s best players (Novak Djokovic, Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner).
The only woman in this very male-dominated environment, she learned, as she says, “a lot of perseverance,” values she directly connects to those required by law: rigor and discipline.
It was on a tennis court that she met Monaco’s ambassador to the United Nations, who opened an opportunity for her in New York.
Holding a degree in law from Côte d’Azur University, specializing in maritime law, she seized the opportunity and joined the United Nations, where she then worked in an international legal and diplomatic environment.
“It’s very complicated, it’s extremely hard to get in, to stay, to progress,” she admits, emphasizing the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people.
A commitment to Nice identity
Above all, Nawal Nourid never wanted to sever her roots. Indeed, she was notably a commentator in Niçois for Nissa Pantai Radio.
An experience she lived as a source of cultural and sporting pride. “Even if you come from working-class neighborhoods, you can be attached to our Niçois culture,” she asserts, claiming both her Moroccan origins and her Nice roots through her mother.
Today admitted to Fordham Law School in New York, Nawal Nourid faces the obstacle of the cost of studies.
Indeed, one year of law school in the United States costs approximately 58,000 dollars, a sum that is difficult to finance even with aid.
Thus, after having benefited from a Crous grant during her studies in Nice, while working in parallel, she launched an online fundraising campaign to continue her studies, due to lack of access to bank loans.
Making the exception a possibility for all
Nawal Nourid wants to be a bearer of a message of equal opportunity that she hopes to see achieved one day.
She advocates for better communication with young people from working-class neighborhoods and the Nice hinterland, so they “allow themselves to dream” and stop thinking that certain paths “are not meant for them.”
Whether it’s internships, networking, or mentorship, creating real opportunities is as important as financial aid according to her. “My journey is not an exception, it must become a possibility,” Nawal sums it up.
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