Four years ago, Borna ShayeiMousavi, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center \u201928, could not have imagined running a cafe in New York City. Today, he is the second student cafe executive officer (SCEO) of Fordham\u2019s student-run cafe, Saxbys, while balancing the distance between him and his family and his drive for academic and career success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ShayeiMousavi, a finance major on the pre-law track, started working for Saxbys as a team lead last semester. When campus recruiters reached out to encourage him to apply for the SCEO position, he recognized it as a rare opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kinds of opportunities are gold,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said.<\/p>\n
After five rounds of interviews, he was selected for the position. Despite being a young SCEO and leading students older than himself, ShayeiMousavi says his age has not affected his approach to leadership.<\/p>\n
If you expect someone to hold a standard and you\u2019re not holding that standard, then you shouldn\u2019t be their leader. Borna ShayeiMousavi, GSBLC \u201928<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to keep a professional standard, regardless of my age, and every team member in the cafe does the same,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said. \u201cIf you expect someone to hold a standard and you\u2019re not holding that standard, then you shouldn\u2019t be their leader.\u201d<\/p>\n
ShayeiMousavi\u2019s approach toward leadership is rooted in experiences that extend beyond Fordham.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before moving to the United States, ShayeiMousavi spent 16 years living in Iran. Though he excelled academically, he said that professional opportunities felt limited there. In high school, he relocated to Canada with his mother and younger sister. This transition placed unexpected responsibilities on him at a young age. By 16, he was helping his family with navigating housing contracts, translating bills and managing financial logistics, experiences he said forced him to mature quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA 16-year-old shouldn\u2019t have to worry about (those things),\u201d ShayeiMousavi said. \u201cBut I knew that one day, I was going to get somewhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After graduating as valedictorian, ShayeiMousavi set his sights on New York City, reasoning that \u201cthe best of the best are here.\u201d Fordham offered him a scholarship, and he moved again. Due to travel restrictions tied to his Iranian passport, he has been unable to see his family in person since starting university.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you told me that I was going to be the CEO of an on-campus cafe and doing an interview for a newspaper, I wouldn\u2019t have believed it. Borna ShayeiMousavi, GSBLC \u201928<\/p>\n
\u201cI took that risk and I sacrificed all these things \u2026 because I know in my mind that one day, I\u2019m going to be the best; I\u2019m going to be successful,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said. \u201cI want to make my parents and all my friends and family proud, (because) I owe it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sense of sacrifice shaped ShayeiMousavi\u2019s perspective toward the opportunity of being Saxbys\u2019 SCEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you told me that I was going to be the CEO of an on-campus cafe and doing an interview for a newspaper, I wouldn\u2019t have believed it,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said. \u201cMy life has completely changed over these four years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond daily operations, ShayeiMousavi sees Saxbys as a community hub rather than just a business. Because it is student-run, he believes that it creates a different kind of environment than other on-campus dining locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re happy to see their friends. They come back more often,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said. \u201cWe\u2019re all students, and students are coming in (and) showing up for students.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hopes to strengthen that sense of connection through marketing initiatives and outreach efforts that can position Saxbys as a gathering place at Fordham. From tabling events to product launches, ShayeiMousavi said he wants the cafe to be a place where students feel valued and welcomed.<\/p>\n
Alongside those efforts, ShayeiMousavi credits his team for the cafe\u2019s positive performance this semester, given that Fordham\u2019s Saxbys is still in its first year of operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one of the top-performing cafes,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t come from me being a good leader. That comes from my team being a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
For ShayeiMousavi, leadership is defined by the ability to navigate hardships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYour maturity doesn\u2019t come with age,\u201d ShayeiMousavi\u00a0 said. \u201cIt comes from experience, from what you\u2019ve gone through.\u201d<\/p>\n
If I can come here, go through all of this and do something like this, then anyone can. Borna ShayeiMousavi, GSBLC \u201928<\/p>\n
Those experiences, he believes, influence how he manages his team and makes decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ShayeiMousavi also carries a personal motivation for success. Years ago, he promised his mother that she would see him on the front page of a newspaper. He said that sitting down for his interview with the Fordham Observer felt like a step toward fulfilling a bigger promise of\u00a0 achievement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she sees me as someone who\u2019s being interviewed, maybe she\u2019ll still miss me, but at least I\u2019ll know I\u2019ve made her a little bit proud,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, ShayeiMousavi sees his time at Saxbys working with guests and managing a team as preparation for a future in finance law.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can come here, go through all of this and do something like this, then anyone can,\u201d ShayeiMousavi said.<\/p>\n
As Fordham\u2019s Saxbys continues to navigate the demands of a student-run business, ShayeiMousavi plans to emphasize connection, both among the team running the cafe and the broader campus community they serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago, Borna ShayeiMousavi, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center \u201928, could not have imagined running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,54109,54110,9,24,63,54111,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-124164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-gabelli","10":"tag-garden-lounge","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-saxbys","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}