雷·塔汉是著名的科学院学者，他将自豪地担任最靠谱的网赌软件五月毕业典礼的旗手.  这一荣誉由校友会授予，旨在表彰在各自学院gpa成绩最高的毕业生. 塔汉将于5月7日获得生物医学科学理学学士学位，主修预健康, 2024, 并将在离他很近的东弗吉尼亚医学院(EVMS)继续他下一阶段的旅程. With both schools set to merge on July 1, 2024, Tahhan is excited about his future.

From his will to work hard to helping those in his community, 塔汉有一颗帮助他人的心，他的职业道德能让他完成任何他想做的事情. 他的旅程将在ODU结束, 他对自己的经历感到谦卑，并感谢他作为君主所利用的机会.

Tahhan comes from a family of medical doctors, but his family’s history is complicated. 黎巴嫩内战始于1975年，是该国精英和最贫穷的宗教团体之间的武装冲突. 近20万人被杀，100万人大规模逃离黎巴嫩. However, Tahhan’s father stayed and completed his medical degree during the war. “我爸爸是一名医生，毕业于黎巴嫩贝鲁特圣约瑟夫大学,塔汉说。. 

Tahhan’s father eventually left Lebanon and settled in France for a while, but his relatives wanted the family to move to the United States of America. “I think he partially came to America because of my granddad,塔汉说。. “我父亲来到这里，然后他在美国做了住院医生，因为你当然是被授权的,塔汉说。.

最初, 塔汉的父亲在康涅狄格州接受住院医师培训，然后搬到汉普顿路，在诺福克综合医院工作. 访问叙利亚后, Tahhan’s father fell in love and got married and their family settled down in Norfolk. Tahhan attended and graduated from Norfolk Collegiate School.

Tahhan’s father was the leading inspiration for him to want to go to college. “He went to school during the 1975 Lebanese Civil War, 我就说, “哦,人, if my dad can go to school and get all this stuff done during a Civil War, 那我真的没有借口了,’”塔汉说.

Coming from a lineage of educators Tahhan said, “I would say I'm a first-generation student in America, but my family definitely went to school outside of America.” Tahhan’s grandparents were instructors at ODU. 他的祖父, 雷蒙德Tahhan, taught Arabic language at ODU and his grandmother, 丹尼斯Tahhan, 教法语.

His maternal grandfather died in February 2024, but David Metzger, Ph.D.他是佩里荣誉学院(Perry 荣誉学院)院长，在塔汉的祖父的指导下上了一门“阿拉伯语入门”课程. “当我和Dr. 他就像梅茨格, ‘oh, I knew your granddad when I was in undergrad, 我上了他的课.’”

到了上大学的时候，塔汉有一些重要的事情要做，他不确定自己是否应该上大学. “一开始, I wasn't sure what college I wanted to go to, but I decided to go to ODU because it felt like it would be a really good school for me, primarily because of its closeness to where I was already living,塔汉说。. “我想待在家人身边, and ODU is also a very affordable and good school, so it made the most sense to go to here and not somewhere else.”

When he started at ODU in the fall of 2020, 由于COVID-19全球大流行的限制，大学和国家都处于封锁状态. Tahhan used this time to make some personal decisions. “I know Covid was a really tough time for a lot of people, 对我来说, 我把新冠病毒视为一种方式，不是重塑自己，而是重新设计很多我认为重要的事情,塔汉说。. “对我来说, 我花时间审视自己的价值观, 看看我在做什么, and try and build a better life for myself after high school.他承认, “I wasn't a great student in high school, 我花了很多时间和朋友在网上玩游戏或参加社交活动.“然而, 在大学里，他改变了，利用额外的时间更深入地研究科学, 医学, philosophy or “whatever I could get my hands on just because I thought it would be fun.”  

Tahhan was laser focused on accomplishing some big goals in college. He worked hard and was a part of the Perry 荣誉学院. 最初, Tahhan majored in biological sciences, 但后来决定转投生物医学，因为它更专注于人类生物学和生理学. 

他把注意力转向学业上，并寻求机会进行本科研究. “I've done a lot of research with Dr. Lisa Shollenberger, which has been awesome, and I've really enjoyed that,塔汉说。.

Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Lisa M Shollenberger, Ph.D. led research efforts with Tahhan for three years. “是博士。. Doug Mills是第一个介绍我们认识的人，Ray从那以后一直是我实验室的重要成员. 雷在实验室里总是表现出好奇心和奉献精神，并获得了佩里荣誉学院颁发的多项本科生研究奖项. 除了他的学识，雷很有思想，总是愿意倾听，微笑，或者挥手.”

他在测量有和没有感染寄生虫的抗体和疫苗方面做了深入的研究. “That was super interesting and super fun, mostly because I got to dive into some of the immunology behind it. And a lot of the actual lab work that goes into not only doing research, but also in a medical lab because they use the same test.” Diagnosing diseases in the lab sparked even more curiosity for Tahhan. “我认为，如果学生有机会在本科阶段进行科学研究, 他们应该,塔汉说。. “这非常有益, and it can only help you build practical skills early on, 对我来说，这是毋庸置疑的, 我很喜欢.”  

他的另一个爱好是家教, 他看到了需求，并采取了下一步行动，想办法帮助他的君主同伴. “I was seeing some students who were really struggling, 我感觉很糟糕，因为我觉得我可以看出他们错过了一些非常重要的东西,塔汉说。. He talked to Senior Lecturer Janet Rinehart-Kim, Ph.D., 他的遗传学老师, and she suggested that he lead supplemental instruction (SI) sessions for Douglas Mills, senior lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences. 

“My favorite thing I've done at ODU is tutoring,塔汉说。. He’s done SI and tutoring with the ODU Science 辅导 Centers (STC) for two years. “I fell in love with teaching and doing research.” 也, he tutored middle school and high schoolers in their science courses. “When I'm doing something with teaching, what I love about it is a student will come in with a problem, and I will give them the tools to solve that direct problem,塔汉说。. He enjoys helping people connect to the material. “随着时间的推移，我可以看到他们的进步，并为他们提供解决未来问题的工具, and that's also why I want to go into 医学.”  

Tahhan was recently admitted into EVMS’s Medical Doctor program. “It's going to be very interesting with the merger and everything but I'm super excited,塔汉说。. “对我来说，这是完全合理的，因为这两家机构都有为汉普顿路地区服务的历史，它们想要走到一起，共享资源,塔汉说。.

对塔汉来说，给周围的人留下有意义的印象和他的学术一样重要. 最近，他在寒假期间在诺福克第一长老会的冬季无家可归者收容所做志愿者. 他每天花几个小时在避难所做饭，为那些没有安全感的人提供食物, and he gained a new perspective about homelessness. 也, he made time to help at the Monarch pantry, a place for ODU students to get food if they are facing food insecurity. 在食品室里，他摆放了货架，并再次抽出时间与前来觅食的帝王蝶同伴交谈. 

当他回顾自己在ODU的时光时，他对那些想来这里的人有一些建议. “ODU is a smart move financially if you live in this area. 也, because of the size of the classrooms at ODU, you can have a very personal relationship with your professor, where they will know you as an individual and be able to work with you individually,塔汉说。. 他高度评价了帝王蝶“容易获得的机会”，以及为什么多样性很重要.

“I've met people from all across the world from Saudi Arabia, 叙利亚, 黎巴嫩和菲律宾,塔汉说。. “Something that I think ODU does well, 除了学生群体在民族背景或种族背景方面的多样性之外, is, I think it's super cool that ODU has a lot of people of different religious backgrounds.” 

In thinking back over his time at ODU and being named 理学院 scholar, he was excited when he got the news, “but I didn't think about it in terms of what it meant, 我感到非常荣幸.” He is elated for his next steps. 塔汉说:“我很高兴能去EVMS，和君主家族呆在一起。.