Samer Atiani

B.S., with honors, in Physics and Computer Information Technology, concentration in economics, 2006
Software Developer for Wireless Generation
New York City, NY

As he walks along the streets of Brooklyn, Samer Atiani occasionally glances over his shoulders, first one, then the other. It’s not pronounced enough to make you think he’s worried about anything, but it’s a little more than you or I might do.

A native of Ramallah, Palestine, Samer grew up with in a city teeming with political dangers, with unannounced violence — good reason to be worried or wary. But he is the picture of pleasantness. One is hard pressed to find anyone more likeable, more open and friendly. He never seems anxious. So why does he glance over his shoulders?

The best guess is that he’s simply trying to avoid being in anyone else’s way, either on foot or in a vehicle. He has no hearing in one ear and only 20 percent in his “good” ear. He is so hearing impaired that if he’s going to walk near or across a curb, he certainly better look first.

If you ever feel leery of going off to college — maybe the way you were concerned about moving from junior high to high school — think about Samer Atiani. This wonderful man, now 21 years old, went from Palestine to America when he went to college. At the time, his spoken English was barely understandable … and he was almost completely deaf.

Talk to him now in Brooklyn and you hear no discernible accent (not even a Brooklyn one), and you hear no dialect that indicates he has a hearing impairment. You certainly will be amazed at his use of English; it easily could pass as his first language.

“I read some English as a child,” he says, “but I really learned to speak it at Guilford College. It did take a lot of time and work.” One of the ways he practiced the language was by speaking at various area churches and community groups, talking about the political situation in Palestine.

Named president of the Guilford College International Club in his sophomore year, Samer enjoyed lively debates with other international students and with faculty and friends while at Guilford. “The whole intellectual climate at Guilford College was great,” he says, “and the school provided constant assistance, always finding ways to accommodate the diverse student body.” He says there were many challenging courses, but that if you go through Guilford College successfully, you can be successful anywhere.

A good deal of what he learned at Guilford was acquired through community service. He made three trips to help victims of hurricanes during his Guilford time, and he’s confident that his current way of working was shaped by his college experiences.

While at Guilford College he learned that his style of leadership was, in his word, problematic. He came to realize that by involving others — by listening and, when possible, incorporating their ideas into the plan — the process becomes significantly more effective. It helps you get decisions made more quickly, and the commitment and follow-through will be stronger.

That style serves him well in his work life. The company he works for in Brooklyn operates in teams, and Samer now is very happy and productive as a team worker. He says the Quaker style at Guilford College means being open to ideas, to discussion, with a central tenet being consensus. His uses that approach in his team at Wireless Generation, where he now works.

The company creates and manages technology that assesses and identifies learning problems. It serves children in the early grades, helping teachers quickly identify any problems in reading and math. Obviously, the quicker such problems are diagnosed, the quicker the child can get help.

Samer likes many things about the job, but one aspect he likes most is what he calls its “diversity,” in this case meaning many different programming languages. It’s not surprising that he would enjoy that — he is fluent in English and Arabic, plus he can hold his own in German and Aramaic. There is not enough room here to list all of the programming languages in which he is fluent.

One experience that Samer had early in his Guilford College life exemplifies his skills and the college’s personalized approach to education. It involved the school’s astronomy telescope. Here’s how Samer puts it: “I reconstructed the radio astronomy telescope operating system in Java language, modifying the system to meet the needs of the physics department. I also constructed a fault-tolerant wireless communications between radio telescopes for purposes of interferometry (with Java, Basic and STAMP assembly languages).”

In other words, the physics department needed the big ole telescope fixed, and student Samer took care of it.

That was good for the department, good for the school and community, and excellent for Samer, who forged what he considers a lifelong friendship with his physics professor.

Samer stays in touch with that professor and with others from the college, saying that Brooklyn is crowded and hectic — he misses the trees, land, lake and open spaces at the school. Guilford College is a great place to explore, he says, explore your true potential, with constant nourishment and support.