Helping Students Thrive Through Entrepreneurial Action
Written by Joodi Mourhli
Attending the King’s E-Lab Residential Programme at King’s College has profoundly shaped the way I approach challenges, opportunities, and value creation. The programme introduced me to the mindset of entrepreneurial thinking—not just starting businesses, but thinking creatively, acting resourcefully, and solving real-world problems with intention and innovation. Over the past year, I have put these principles into practice by taking the first steps to launch a social enterprise focused on one clear and specific mission: providing essay editing support for students applying to universities and scholarship programmes abroad.
The idea for the enterprise was born from both personal experience and a recurring pattern I had observed—students with high academic potential, often from underrepresented or conflict-affected backgrounds, struggled with writing compelling personal statements and application essays. These essays are often the heart of competitive admissions processes, yet many students lack access to the kinds of tailored feedback and editorial support that can make their stories stand out. Recognising this unmet need, I began to envision a solution: a social enterprise that offers accessible, high-quality essay editing services to empower students to present their full potential to global institutions.
Following the E-Lab residential, I submitted this concept to the King’s E-Lab Prize Competition. The process of pitching the idea helped me apply key lessons from the residential—how to articulate a clear value proposition, demonstrate market need, and outline a feasible implementation strategy. I was honoured to receive pre-seed funding, which served as both a validation of the idea and a catalyst to begin building the infrastructure for the enterprise.
I soon realised that, to move from idea to impact, I would need to continue strengthening my entrepreneurial skillset. As a result, I joined the EnterpriseWOMEN programme at the Cambridge Judge Business School, where I am gaining deeper insight into the practical and strategic aspects of running a social venture and connecting with a community of like-minded women entrepreneurs who are also building mission-driven organisations.
A breakthrough in this journey came through a partnership with the Syrian Youth Empowerment (SYE) initiative, which supports youth affected by conflict in accessing global educational opportunities. I will be working directly with their cohort of 30 graduate students, who will be the first to receive essay editing services from my enterprise. This partnership allows me to pilot the model in a focused, impactful way—testing the service, gathering feedback, and iterating the process to better meet students’ needs. Already, the collaboration has given me invaluable insights into the diversity of writing styles, academic goals, and cultural narratives students bring to their applications.
Perhaps the most important shift over the past year has been internal. I no longer see entrepreneurship as something reserved for seasoned professionals or Silicon Valley founders. I’ve come to understand that it begins with identifying a problem you care about and committing to solving it. The King’s E-Lab helped demystify this process for me, and since then, I’ve embraced entrepreneurial thinking as a mindset I carry into everything I do: asking bold questions, acting with empathy, and believing that small interventions can create outsized impact.
Looking ahead, I plan to grow the essay editing service into a scalable, community-driven platform—one that can eventually train former beneficiaries to support future applicants. The long-term vision is not only to improve essays but to create a ripple effect of empowerment, equipping students with the confidence and skills to tell their stories and pursue opportunities they might once have thought out of reach.
Joodi Mourhli
Joodi completed her nursing studies at the American University of Beirut before moving to Cambridge in 2023 to pursue an MPhil in Population Health Sciences. She is currently a research assistant at the Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group at Cambridge. Additionally, she is a mentor and a member of the leadership committee of the Syrian Youth Empowerment Graduate Programme, where she discovered her passion for supporting students through essay editing. She completed the King's E-lab Residential in 2024, pitched her social enterprise idea at the E-Lab Prize Competition, and received pre-seed funding. Recently, she has been selected to attend the EnterpriseWOMEN programme at the Judge Business School where she strives to further develop her social enterprise to ultimately support more deserving students secure higher education and scholarship opportunities abroad.