From the fifth-ranked high school in the U.S. to the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC) and one of the nation’s top public honors colleges, junior Soraya Remaili has built a collegiate experience defined by research, rigor and community. 

In addition to her enrollment in the University of South Carolina Honors College, Remaili is a triple major in computer science, statistics and biological sciences. Working toward her goal to pursue research across STEM disciplines, she credits her foundation to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) in Alexandria, Virginia. 

“They had great facilities and labs for us to learn in, and they trained us really well,” Remaili says. “The classes were harder because they gave us an opportunity to dive into a field right away.” 

Upon acceptance to TJHSST, students complete original engineering or experimental research projects and can publish their work in the school’s student-produced journal. The emphasis on STEM exposes students to advanced lab environments early. 

“The classes they offered were beyond anything I could imagine,” Remaili says. “You take classes such as advanced marine science or DNA science with unique equipment. We had a whole oceanography lab, which I was in.” 

Those classes and labs prepared her for USC. 

“I came in with those foundations because the way they prepared us at TJ was rigorous,” Remaili says. “I certainly enjoy reaping the benefits of it now. Having that foundation that helps you be more prepared and successful.” 

Choosing USC 

Throughout high school, Remaili worked restaurant jobs for up to 40 hours a week to help fund her future. She wanted a large campus experience, so she followed her guidance counselor’s advice to consider USC. The university showed interest in funding her ambitions, and a campus visit sealed the deal. 

“We started on the Horseshoe, and I had a feeling [that I wanted to go here]. After that, I thought, ‘I really do want to be here,’” she says. 

Earning admission into the South Carolina Honors College provided additional opportunities and community.

“The Honors College is how I met my friends who convinced me to join Theta Tau, which completely changed my social life,” Remaili says. “It gave me so many friends and opportunities. From there, I knew I had made the right decision.” 

Remaili says that joining Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, as a freshman shaped everything that followed. 

“I can't express how much it has completely transformed the way I have been in college,” Remaili says. “I was encouraged to do research, and I've met my best friends through Theta Tau.” 

Remaili later served as chair of service and diversity, equity and inclusion for the USC chapter, organizing outreach events. 

“It's a great way for people in the MCEC to get out there and meet people,” she says. “It's nice to have a community that you can always go to.” 

Finding Her Focus 

While her three majors are all STEM disciplines, that was not her original college plan. The daughter of Algerian immigrants, Remaili applied as a political science major, inspired by her international negotiation and affairs certification from the Paris Institute for Political Science in 2022. 

“I didn't learn how to code or anything, but you learn a kind of empathy that I think is important to have in science,” Remaili recalls about her certification experience. 

But her STEM background and experience resurfaced. Instead of political science, Remaili was an environmental science major during her first semester at USC. However, she realized that technology would be essential. 

“To be an environmental scientist, I need to know how to code because the role of technology is going to come quicker than we all think,” she says. “Being that person with coding skills is important.” 

Remaili switched to computer science during her second semester and one course stood out to her: Software Engineering (CSCE 247), taught by Computer Science and Engineering Professor Portia Plante. 

“That was an intense, deep dive into every single part of a coding project and getting familiar with GitHub and all these tools that I use out of all the classes,” Remaili says. 

Professor David Hitchcock, director of USC’s statistics graduate program, says that Remaili distinguishes herself in and outside the classroom. 

“Soraya is always willing to challenge herself, whether working on cutting-edge research on the detection of marine life and climate modeling, applying for prestigious awards, or taking challenging courses,” Hitchcock says. “Through her coursework in statistics, data science and computing, along with her own talents, she's obtained impressive data skills that help her learn from and communicate insights about her scientific studies.” 

Listening for Whales 

Remaili’s research career began with a conversation in Theta Tau when a fraternity brother described how doctoral students are paid for their research. 

“I asked, ‘How do you get involved in that kind of stuff?’ And he said, ‘You’ve got to have research,’” Remaili says. 

After emailing professors and searching USC’s research database, she joined the Conservation Oceanography Lab, led by Erin Meyer-Gutbrod in the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment during the spring of her freshman year. The lab uses acoustic data to track North Atlantic right whales and reduce vessel-related deaths. Remaili has listened to thousands of hours of acoustic data, deployed instruments on the Georgia coast and helped with data processing and analysis. Remaili also represented the lab at the Right Whale Festival in Florida, where she showed hundreds of visitors how to identify baleen whale sounds. 

“She is motivated, independent and extremely reliable,” Meyer-Gutbrod says. “She helps bring this important work to the public sphere, and we are very lucky to have Soraya in our lab.” 

Research helped Remaili realize how much more she wants to learn. To better understand the math behind ecological research, Remaili added a statistics major, and to deepen her scientific knowledge, she added a biological sciences major. To combine all her areas of study, she secured a competitive Research Experiences for Undergraduates program in Anacortes, Washington, at the Shannon Point Marine Center for this summer.  

“I ended up getting into the best programming with the best summer I could have asked for,” Remaili says. 

Working on a Python-based project analyzing ocean temperature and warming patterns in the Gulf of Maine reinforced her goal of blending computation and environmental science. 

“It’s funny because these are all really environmental science projects, but I'm always on my computer, which is what I love because I wanted to find computational applications in all these different environmental science fields,” she says. 

Looking Ahead 

Remaili is choosing an acoustic project to join in Newfoundland, Canada, for this upcoming summer. After graduating in May 2027, she plans to pursue graduate school and is considering a future in academia. Reflecting on her time at USC, she is confident in her decision. 

“This is a research university with great faculty and professors,” Remaili says. “I’ve had great opportunities coming here that I don't think I could have gotten anywhere else. I feel like I’ve made the most of my time here.”