The Dream is to Study at the Technion

About 400 excellent high school girls from across the country, from Paran in the south to Yanuh-Jat near the northern border, participated in the TechWomen2024 event at the Technion on Wednesday, May 8. At the event, now in its ninth year, the students were introduced to studies at the Technion and the opportunities available with an academic degree in science and engineering.

Rosalyn August

Rosalyn August generously supports the annual TechWomen events at the Technion. In a recorded greeting, she said, “I support this special program with my heart and money because I want to empower brilliant women like you. There is so much darkness in this world, and the Technion and the education you can acquire there represent the light. I have seen how women at the Technion are changing the world and I have no doubt that you have the power to change the world and bring the light.”

TechWomen events, sponsored by the Rosalyn August Girls Empowerment Initiative (GEM), have already led many high school girls to focus on science and technology studies and to choose to study at the Technion. Yarden Flash from Kiryat Motzkin, a student who recently returned to campus after three months of reserve duty, was a high school student when she came to the TechWomen2017 event seven years ago. Following the visit, she chose to study at the Technion and was accepted into the prestigious “Crystals” program in the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she continued to a master’s degree in the faculty and recently returned from a scientific conference in Austria.

Hila Litbak, who studied at Elon High School in Holon, came as a student to TechWomen2018. According to her, “the conversations with students in the faculties especially influenced me, and I decided to study at the Technion. I chose the data engineering track in the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences  – the studies are challenging but also very interesting.”

Prof. Aylet Fishman, dean of students, who completed all her degrees at the Technion, talked about her personal and academic career. “I chose to study engineering so I would have a practical and challenging profession and so that I would always be independent. When I started studying, I didn’t think about an academic career, but life led me there,” she said, noting that “the world is currently flooded with fake news, for example in the food industry where I work, false claims that monosodium glutamate is poison and that frying with olive oil is forbidden. It is very important to always learn the facts and make decisions based on them.” She emphasized the most important message: “Believe in yourselves and your abilities, and you are invited to continue your studies at the Technion –  studies here will open many doors for you in academia and industry. Good luck.”

The special day began with breakfast, followed by an opening session led by Dr. Efrat Sabach from the Faculty of Physics. Dr. Sabach, an astrophysicist who also completed all her degrees at the Technion, said, “In such difficult times, when we are exposed to pain and mourning, and hoping for the return of the hostages, it is very heartening to see you, hundreds of outstanding students, arriving at this event from the Arava, from Sderot, from Ashdod, from Baka al-Gharbiyye, from Ma’alot, from Pardes Hanna, and beyond.” She noted that the Technion is celebrating its centennial year, introduced the various faculties, and shared a bit about herself. “As a child, I was curious,” she said, “and at age 12 I decided I would be a physicist. Physics is a science that explains everything – from the smallest things to the entire universe. That’s how I got to the Faculty of Physics at the Technion, where I did my doctorate in astrophysics under Prof. Noam Soker.”

Doctoral students Daniela Bar-Lev from the Taub Faculty of Computer Science and Yael Hershkovitz-Pollak from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering talked about their academic paths and their current research. Daniela’s research deals with DNA-based data storage systems under the guidance of Prof. Tuvi Etzion and Prof. Eitan Yaakobi and she recently won the Schmidt Postdoctoral Award. Yael, under the guidance of Prof. Hossam Haick, is working on intercellular communication in the context of programmed cell death using diffusive organic molecules, aiming to develop targeted cancer treatments.

Limor Scheich, a grade coordinator, and Raya Attias, a teacher from the Gutwirth Comprehensive School in Sderot, came with 27 students and said, “We were received here with open arms. The hospitality was great, and the students had an excellent experience, especially in the faculty laboratories.”

Mai Almog, Ariel Abuhasira, Noam Medina, and Lianne Gabbai came in a group of 34 students from Mekif Zayn Comprehensive School in Ashdod. This was their first visit to the Technion. They are studying biology, biotechnology, physics, biology, and industrial engineering and management in various combinations, and according to them, “the dream is to study at the Technion.”