In high school, while flipping burgers three days a week at Burger King, Fahad dreamt of becoming a professional athlete. However, after realizing he was neither big nor talented enough to play in the NFL, he turned to government and politics as an outlet for his competitive spirit. Following a stint as president of his high school student government and student representative to the Board of Education, Fahad volunteered to spend the summer before his freshman year of college as one of the youngest organizing fellows for Organizing for Action, where he led local efforts to combat climate change. It was a fun summer, until Fahad's father suffered a debilitating stroke.
Fahad's first few months at Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus revolved around visiting his father in the hospital and earning as much as he could to help keep the lights on at home. But adversity makes men. Fahad excelled academically that year, became an economics tutor and teaching assistant, and rose to leadership positions in nearly every student activity in which he was involved.
By his sophomore year, he was on his way to The White House as a presidential writer.