Yara escaped war torn Lebanon at age 17 and moved to the United States to pursue her education. She has thrived in the Biology program's Biotechnology concentration since arriving at Framingham State. Her potential as a research scientist was on full display when she was accepted into the prestigious Research Experience for Undergraduates at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in the Computational Biophysics Department. She was mentored by some of the leaders in the field during the summer experience, and had her final project accepted into two symposiums.

Yara enjoys the small classes sizes and sense of community at FSU. “The faculty pay so much attention to ever single student,” she says. “You have an opportunity to build relationships with faculty that you don’t find in other schools. My professors are so passionate about the subjects they are teaching. It makes you excited to learn about it.”