Einas Abu Hjoul

So many of Mar Elias’s students go on to college and successful careers thanks in part to their fine education at MEEI.  COVID-19 has created challenges for everyone and has put on hold young people’s dreams and ambitions.  Here is a short essay by Einas about what she’s been doing since graduating from MEEI and her current state of uncertainty due to the pandemic.

My name is Einas Abu Hjoul. I graduated from Mar Elias high school in 2016. During my senior year, I started thinking more seriously about my future.  Like  many students after graduating from Mar Elias; I took a gap year to study for the Psychometric exam ( for the Pilgrims audience -this is similar to the SATs in the United States and a high score on this exam is essential for admission to college in Israel, and a certain score is needed for studying in Italy as well, but not as high as the score needed in order to study in Israel, because Italy requires other exams).  While studying for the Psychometric exam, I worked as a private teacher for languages, mathematics and chemistry for high school students. I also worked in a restaurant in Haifa for several months at the same time I was teaching, just to try other work and to deal more with people (it’s not easy!), and I took violin lessons once a week to improve myself.

For as long as I can remember, I thought about studying medicine.  During my gap year, I participated in a volunteer program called Sunshine Project. This program uses the power of play to support the psychosocial and developmental needs of children and their families as they face medical challenges. Our role in the Sunshine Project was to use bed-side services to bring play activities to every child in the hospital ward regardless of age, illness or background.

At the end of this year, I started to think about the possibility of studying abroad, I looked for good universities, and for a good place where I could spend the 6 years necessary to complete college and a medical degree, so I chose Italy, despite my family’s urging to choose a different country since the education system in Italy is very difficult.

I took an Italian Language course for 3 months in Florence, Italy, to study the language and to see how it is to live in Italy. It was an amazing experience. When I went back home, I took a preparation course for the entrance exam for the universities in Italy (like the IMAT for the students who want to study in English).

In September 2018, I completed two exams, the language exam and the entrance exam for medical school in Rome. A month later, I received notice that I had been accepted. From that moment onwards I experienced a cornucopia of emotions. I moved to Italy at the beginning of November 2018 after I got my study visa, and started a totally new, different experience.

I started at Sapienza University of Rome (Sapienza Università di Roma). It is one of the largest European universities and one of the oldest in history, founded in 1303. It was really hard at the beginning: I was alone, I started studying medicine in my fourth language, Italian, which is totally different from my mother language (Arabic), and this made my studies even harder.

Then I started to meet Italian students.  I had my group of friends who helped me a lot and I lived with Italian girls, who helped me improve my language. Another obstacle was the method of exams, all the exams are oral exams, a totally new experience for me.

I learned to live and enjoy the Italian life; a quiet life and with good food, quite different from the stressful life in Israel (especially as an Arab who lives in Israel).

Now I speak Italian well, and I learned the right way to study, it took time and required patience.

As a result of the COVID-19, I had to go back home. This was a very hard time for me; especially in Italy where I felt unsafe because the university was not prepared for such a thing. We did continue online classes but it was more complicated.

Then I started to think about whether it’s better to come back home and just try to study medicine here in Israel which would require me to retake the entrance exam in Israel next year.  I’ve also thought maybe I should just wait out COVID-19 and then continue my studies in Rome. With COVID-19 still with us, I remain in a quandary about my future.