Saleh Hassen is impressive. Growing up in a family with financial difficulties did not in any way deter him from achieving his dreams. The child of Ethiopian immigrants, he graduated from an Ivy League university as a first-generation college student with a double major in electrical and computer engineering and computer science. Saleh graduated from T.C. Williams (now Alexandria City High School) in 2017 and from Cornell University in 2021. He began his career at Google where he worked on building search features, and he currently works as an embedded software engineer at Two Six Technologies in Arlington.
Saleh has always sought educational opportunities, and while in college, he was a part of the Cornell University Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (CUAUV) project team of undergraduates that designs, builds, tests, and programs autonomous underwater vehicles that must navigate an obstacle course and score as many points as possible in competition. Saleh especially loved seeing how engineering is used outside of textbooks to solve problems that may have more than one solution. He relishes working in a hands-on discipline where solutions are not just black and white.
In a recent conversation Saleh made it clear that he had help from a very supportive community along his path to college and career. He especially credits many of his high school teachers and mentors. He feels that he would not be where he is today if not for his AVID Program teachers, Ms. Butler and Ms. Kelly, his physics teacher Laura Simons, and Beth Lovain and Margaret Feldman of the SFA. Saleh also noted that being on the high school robotics team had a huge impact on him and sparked his love of using technology to solve problems.
One of the most impressive things about Saleh is his practice of giving back to the community that helped him. Saleh is a Scholarship Fund donor and a mentor to the students on the AC High School Robotics team. During competition season, he volunteers twice a week to teach and encourage the next generation of STEM students. Saleh says, “I try to pay it forward and give back.”
Saleh is a dreamer and a problem solver. He came from a family with two siblings and a single mother, so money was tight, but he graduated from college debt-free and now puts his education to work solving real world problems. He has not forgotten how his community helped him. He was mentored by those who saw his potential; he was awarded a scholarship from the SFA; and now he returns the favor. When speaking about what receiving the James Benin Scholarship meant to him, he says, “In high school I heard horror stories about students going into major debt to finance their college education. I was so afraid of not being able to repay huge loans, so having the SFA scholarship, a Pell Grant, and aid from Cornell gave me great comfort. People were generous to me, so I owe it to the next generation to be generous.” The SFA is proud of this extraordinary young man, and we are impressed by his achievements and generosity.
