Ismail is a Palestinian student born and raised in Gaza. He has always lived in Gaza until 2019 when he took part in an exchange year in Bluffton County, Indiana.

At 15 years old, Ismail spent time there as a junior exchange student and really enjoyed his year. He chose a wide range of classes such as Biology 2, a college credit class, and a culinary class as he thought it would be a useful skill to have. 

Ismail is now attending the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA. He is currently studying Neuroscience and Behavioural Science as a Pre-med student. Originally, Ismail’s local coordinator told him about the University of Notre Dame and wrote him a recommendation letter for the university. His host family in Indiana also live about 2 hours away from South Bend Notre Dame which was one of his main reasons for picking the university. However, Ismail also cites the fact that the college itself allows him to excel academically and he was also quite entranced by the beauty of the campus when he was researching it.  

Ismail hopes to become a neurosurgeon after completing his studies as he found the topic extremely interesting and thinks it could be a very enjoyable career long term. So far, Ismail has had a wonderful experience at college. His favourite class is Neuroscience, and his favourite module so far was the “Curing Blindness” module in his Biology class.

Next year, Ismail hopes to find the time to join extracurriculars and is interested in taking up Boxing.