Technion International Graduates

Going Out Into the World:

15 students from 6 countries have completed their studies at Technion International

“They say that if you’re the smartest person in the room it’s a sign that you’re not in the right room. Here, I was in the right room with the best and smartest people.” This is how Rebecca Samarelli summed up her four years of study at Technion International. Samarelli said, “The beginning was not easy. The shock on the first day was tremendous, and communication was complex. I thought I’d get excellent grades here, just like I did in high school – and I was wrong, big time. But our class turned into a melting pot very quickly: we studied together, we had fun, we suffered, and we became a family. We learned the meaning of hard work here. We learned that the effort is always worthwhile.”

Samarelli is one of 15 students who recently completed their studies at Technion International and earned a degree in Civil Engineering, focusing on environmental engineering and construction management. Four of them are from Italy, one from France, seven from China, one from India, one from Guatemala, and one from Japan. Two of them will continue to earn graduate degrees at Technion and two will join the labor market in Israel.

Technion International Director Ronit Lis-Hacohen presided over the graduation ceremony. Dean of Graduate Studies, Prof. Orit Hazzan, congratulated the graduates: “Each of you will be able to make a mark on their community: in environmental protection, green energy production, the creation of jobs, housing, and more. In this way, you will continue the Technion tradition of disseminating scientific and engineering knowledge and the message of innovation around the world.”

Prof. Mark Talesnick, founder of the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) branch at Technion, spoke about the challenges facing the global engineering community. “We live in a world where more than a billion people have no access to drinking water and two billion have no access to medical treatment,” said Prof. Talesnick. “You, as the engineers of the future, have learned a lot here – but you have not learned how to work with your hands, how to lead, how to grow a social conscience. It is important for these things to guide you in your future endeavors as well. You can make a difference – go out and do it.”

From left to right, front row: Monong (Rose) Wang – on her way to a graduate degree at Berkeley, JiaHui (Lee) Li – Monash University (Australia), Hanqi (Mike) He – Carnegie Mellon, Eithan Sonnino – Stanford, Roy Yehuda Abdollahi – staying in Israel, Chloe Bouaziz – Columbia, Rebecca Samarelli – Berkeley, Sara Sasson – staying in Israel. Back row: Fengning Liu – Berkeley, Sooraj Kumar – Georgia Tech, Yifei (Fred) Xie – MIT, Gabriel Mishaan – University of Illinois, Masahiro Tomita – Technion, JiaQi (Jackie) Chen – Technion, Zhisen (Frank) Hu – New South West University (Australia).