Texas State welcomes Fulbright Israel Master's Outreach Fellow

After choosing to be a part of Texas State’s Computer Science graduate program, Nader Maray is Texas State’s first Fulbright Israel Master's Outreach Fellow to attend the university.

Fulbright Israel, also known as the United States–Israel Educational Foundation (USIEF), is a joint U.S. and Israeli academic exchange program. Of the select handful of Israel fellows, many will attend universities such as Yale, Harvard, or Columbia — and now Texas State.

Maray explains that the fellowship gives him the chance to explore academics and the career field he wishes to join at a university that can best help him. “The meaning of the scholarship for me is getting the support that I need to further expand on my passions to learn new things and have a really good opportunity of learning in the U.S.,” Maray said.

Previously, Maray worked as a student researcher at IBM Research labs in Haifa, Israel, as part of its Hardware Verification team. During the internship he worked alongside the lab partners from Texas. Maray explained that working with the partners made him aware of the fast-growing technology and computer science field in the state. It piqued his interest in pursuing the two year master’s degree at Texas State.

“I've just been hearing so many good things about the computer science field in Texas, how it's growing and I honestly just, I love Texas,”  Maray said. “I love everything from nature to cities like Austin and Dallas. So, it's both my love for the state and just how rapidly the industry is growing in Texas.”

While his interest in Texas technology is new, Maray has loved computer science since high school. The more time Maray spent learning about the subject, the more his passion grew.

“It was just a curiosity thing,” Maray said. “I saw all the different technologies that we're developing at the time, and still are developing and I just felt like I wanted to know how these things work. It's not just curiosity. It's also because I actually love it. I love doing this. Even when I'm under so much pressure from homework and whatnot, I'm still enjoying it.”

As a newcomer to Texas State, Maray has met many people and said that many of his peers can be shy or introverted at times.

“I feel like that's natural because most of us are new to the U.S. There are a lot of international students, but I've still been meeting a lot of different people from different cultures. Socializing and talking to them, getting to know more about their cultures and what they do, whether it be Americans or other international students. It's been great so far,” Maray said.

During his time in San Marcos, Maray looks forward to going tubing and learning more about the people he meets.

"My No. 1 goal would be just to gain more knowledge in the field that I'm pursuing. I want to write a thesis. I want to do more research. So, there's that on the education side and let's say on the social side, I want to meet different people. I want to get to know more of the cultures and get to tour around Texas, possibly even go to some other states. Just basically explore the U.S.,” Maray said.