By Avigayil Kadesh
A gifted science student from St. Joseph Al-Mutran High School in Nazareth was one of four Israeli teens to win a bronze medal at the
45th International Chemistry Olympiad held last July at Moscow State University. Marah Zoabi, 17, was also the sole female and only Arab of the 18 Israeli delegates to the international teen Olympiads in chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science during 2013.
“I felt it was special,” says Marah, who is fluent in Arabic, Hebrew and English. “I want to encourage other girls and other Arabs to take part in such programs because it enriches your knowledge in so many ways, including language and culture. It was like visiting the whole world just by being in one place.”
The Chemistry Olympiad challenged 300 scientific superstars from 75 countries to find independent and creative solutions to complex theoretical and practical chemical problems. They sat for a five-hour practical exam that included three laboratory experiments, and completed a 48-question written exam the following day.
Marah and her three Israeli teammates – Ori Taichman, Ronny Frumkin and Roi Elia -- were chosen for the team through a series of rigorous national qualifying tests. The government covered travel expenses for them and two adult mentors from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
“The hardest thing was that you have no exact syllabus, so you study many things and have to think creatively and differently,” Marah says. She hopes to qualify again next year and go for gold.
During their time in Russia, the whiz kids met prominent scientists, enjoyed paintball, a disco party and a boat trip, and visited a water park, a zoo and a planetarium.
“We had 10 days in Moscow and just 10 hours of exams -- the rest was fun,” says Marah. What she enjoyed more than anything else was “meeting new people from different places and learning more about their cultures and languages.”
A boat trip was part of the itinerary for Olympiad participants.
Curious and ambitious
Already in the ninth grade, Marah’s chemistry teacher, Halil abu-Nufl, recognized her talent and encouraged her to enter national competitions in which she won gold medals two years running. He also told her about the Archimedes Program, a youth excellence program in chemistry at the Technion, where she has taken university-level courses for credit once a week.
“That actually made me more curious and ambitious,” says the Muslim teen.
When abu-Nufl suggested that she try out for the International Chemistry Olympiad team, she jumped at the chance despite knowing it was a long shot.
“First, I had to go through many stages in Israel. The first stage started with 6,000 students,” Marah relates. “After they chose 10 students, a lot of [Technion] professors taught us and gave us exams. Then they chose the four to represent the country in chemistry from the results of the exams.”
Her parents, she adds, were encouraging and supportive. Her father is a mechanical engineer and her mother, a Technion graduate, is a biology teacher.
Marah will apply to the Technion for college, “but maybe I’ll change my mind and study abroad, perhaps at Cambridge,” she confides.
She does not yet know exactly how she will apply her skills in the professional world. “This opportunity was a surprise for me, and maybe life will give me more surprises and opportunities and I’ll discover more about myself,” she says with characteristic maturity beyond her years.
Her personal role models range from Mahatma Gandhi to renowned Technion Prof. Hossam Haick, a Christian Arab and inventor of a
groundbreaking diagnostic breath test, in whose nanotechnology lab she volunteered during her junior year.
“I’m very affected by people who help other people and save lives in different ways,” she says.
Marah stresses that she is not focused only on science. She has been a ballet dancer since she was four years old, and spends 10 hours a week at the barre. “Many teens think they have to do one thing at a time, but if you organize your time you can do lots of things,” she says.