Yazan Abdella | Student Spotlight

Yazan Abdella 

BS Candidate
Chemical Engineering

"My interest in Chemical Engineering began when I chanced upon an intro seminar while browsing Stanford’s course catalog. Honestly, I never really thought about ChemE before that. What got me in the door? The course mentioned we’d go on field trips and get free food.

The food was a bonus, but what blew me away was how diverse Chemical Engineering is. From flexible, foldable phone screens to capturing carbon dioxide from the air to protect our planet to even synthesizing lab-grown salmon, these labs left me in complete awe and appreciation that so many cool and completely different concepts could all come from the same educational foundation: Chemical Engineering. It didn’t take long after that for me to decide to declare ChemE, and I haven’t looked back since.

Some of my best memories at Stanford revolve around the silly experiences I have gotten to share with the people I’ve met. Like in ChemEng 185A, we’d blast “Life is a Highway” from the Cars movie to pass the time while conducting experiments. I also cherish time spent with my a cappella group, whether at rehearsal, a coffee shop, an auditorium, or a stairwell in Braun — where we’d sing if we could not reserve a practice room. These memories are all priceless.

The future for me right now is uncertain. There are a lot of potential paths I’m juggling in my head: graduate school, industry, and medical school, to name a few. I currently don’t know where I’ll end up, but that’s something I’m very okay with! I’ve been enjoying my time here in ChemE and at Stanford. No matter where I eventually end up, this ChemE life is a highway I never plan to leave."