“It’s a small palm tree in Arabic. In Farsi it’s gold. In Tagalog, the Filipino language, it means a star.” Tala tells us about the different meanings of her name to break the ice and, in doing so, reveals her interest in languages—she speaks Arabic, English, and a bit of French and Spanish—and, above all, her international background.
Because if there was one dream Tala had during her childhood in Syria, it was to travel to other countries and discover new worlds. She is only twenty-five, but she has already made that childhood ambition a reality to a great extent. In this interview, we share how she got to where she is, including the challenges posed by a country at war, the importance she attributes to values, and how she set out to find a place where she could identify with them. Today, we are lucky to introduce you to Tala Khalil.
A scholarship that changed everything
“I was 17 when I received the scholarship in an international school movement. The first time I applied, I got rejected. It was a long process, but I was very determined. I was really passionate about this opportunity, and I could see myself there. I believed in the mission. I guess this is a recurring theme in my life” she tells us when talking about one of the most crucial moments in her life.
“I was 17 when I received the scholarship in an international school movement… I believed in the mission. I guess this is a recurring theme in my life.”
Tala was living in the city of Banias on the Mediterranean coast of Syria, but she dreamed of discovering other countries and studying in an international environment. However, not just anywhere: she was looking for an academic institution known for its values of collaboration, merit and sustainability.
“That was the first step I took into moving towards the life that I wanted to live and that got me to where I am now” she explains. But first, let us talk a bit about her childhood.
A Mature Girl: Early Lessons in Responsibility
We have barely exchanged a few words, but one trait of her character is already clear. “My cousins still laugh at me, that I was way too mature when I was a kid. I would like to sit with the adults and participate in their conversations. I had some magazines that I would religiously read as a child. I took an interest in things that most kids my age at that time didn’t,” she recalls. “Yeah, mature was the word that they would always use to describe me.”
That maturity was apparent in the way she took responsibility for her three siblings.
“I have one sister and two brothers, and I am the eldest. I learned to get myself to and from school, unlock the door, and make sure my siblings arrived safely from kindergarten. I also ensured we had the lunch my mom had prepared. These tasks felt normal to me from a very young age.”
In that early-21st-century Syria, Tala took on the role of the eldest sister. In some ways, she became a role model for her siblings. “My youngest brother followed my footsteps. He applied to the same international schools, and he did get accepted. Right now, he is studying at the school in Tanzania.”
Destination Thailand
So where did she study on her scholarship? “In 2017 I left my family, and I went to Thailand for my last two years of high school. This was a life-shattering truth for my parents: 17-year-old and I’m going to Thailand on my own. However, I am very lucky and grateful that my parents were very supportive of what I want to do in my life.”
“They valued students based on their academic strength, their social integrity and contribution to their communities.”
As we have hinted, Tala worked hard to get that scholarship, “I applied the first year, I reached the last stage, and then I got rejected.” However, she did not give up. “I said to myself, I’m not letting this opportunity slip. I did my research, and I spent nights up watching videos of the schools I applied to.”
Defining values
A major factor in her decision to choose the schools was their international nature. “They bring together students from all over the globe. We all lived together on campus.” She recalls that there was no real culture shock, as the environment was so diverse, with students from a wide range of backgrounds, including countries she hadn’t even heard of before, like Bhutan.
Besides the international experience, Tala was attracted to that school because of the values it embodied. “The mission was to make education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. That’s their motto. They valued students based on their academic strength, their social integrity and contribution to their communities.”
Drinking water in times of war
For her final high school project, Tala chose to develop a water purification system for contaminated wells in her native Syria. This involved creating samples of contaminated water and analyzing them with a machine at her school. Why did she pick that project? Why did it interest her? “There is a very big topic that we still haven’t touched upon, which is the war in Syria. I spent a big part of my life experiencing that in various ways. It had a huge impact on me, on my family and on all Syrians.”
She explains that some wells in Syria were chemically contaminated during the lengthy war that devastated the country. “When the war broke in Syria, my family and I were living abroad. Two years into the war, we came back to Syria. The country went through very challenging conditions. I was still able to go to school, but it was not safe at any moment. Life conditions were consistently challenging in terms of the basics of electricity, water, gas, etc.”
“I was still able to go to school [in Syria], but it was not safe at any moment. Life conditions were consistently challenging in terms of the basics of electricity, water, gas, etc.”
Although she has visited the country since then, Tala remains concerned about the well-being of her family. The ongoing war at that time created a situation of uncertainty. It also created barriers for her applying to universities in countries where Syrians faced sanctions and travel restrictions.
A cold shock
Returning to her final high school project, the analytical machine broke down just before she could submit her work, so Tala had to switch to a different topic at the last minute. She managed to excel despite this setback, and then it was time to think about her future at university.
Although her water treatment project did not go as planned, it motivated her to consider a degree in chemical engineering. “I’ve always enjoyed the science, but what I really liked about it was how to use it, how to apply it—to work with people in teams, not just in a lab. So I drifted away from the pure science, and I started thinking about engineering.” Once again, she got another scholarship, this time at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Tala says that, unlike Thailand, she did experience a bit of a culture shock in Canada—or rather, a cold shock. “I arrived in August, and I started wearing my winter clothes. I thought it was supposed to be summer in August! That was a change indeed.” She also had to get used to managing her day-to-day life individually and planning ahead.
Engineering: The Perfect Combination of Science and Humanities
During her degree, Tala discovered new dimensions to engineering. On the one hand, her favorite aspect was the processes rather than the final products. “I discovered that the courses where we had to go through a problem statement from the beginning of the cycle, thinking, generating ideas, testing, prototyping and then finally releasing the product, were the ones I enjoyed the most.”
“I realized that [engineering] was the perfect combination of science and humanities, that there was a big human aspect to this discipline.”
But that was not the only revelation. “I enjoyed finding out about engineering in a different perspective. I realized that it was the perfect combination of science and humanities, that there was a big human aspect to this discipline. It was not just math and science and equations. There’s a lot of people management, working in teams all the time, psychology. I believe that for an engineer to fully achieve success, they need to understand things outside the physics and the math.”
The day Tala interviewed ACCIONA
“I was very keen on getting some practical experience,” she tells us about her first steps in the working world. “I tried not to limit myself too much to find out what I wanted. I was doing interviews for different roles and one of them was with ACCIONA, after I had applied for the Quality, Health & Safety, Environmental and Sustainability, QHSES Co-op role at the ACCIONA Head Office in Vancouver, Canada.”
“I did not actually know much about ACCIONA before the interview, so I did research… I was surprised by the place sustainability has in the company.”
Even though the job was in the infrastructure sector, she found its interdisciplinary nature appealing. “It could get me a lot of exposure. That was my key objective out of my first job.” She interviewed with HR and with a director who would later play a major role in shaping her path. “I had an interview with someone who would become my director later on. It was a great conversation. I was very interested in working with this professional. I could see myself in that company. I had a feeling that it was a very welcoming environment for me to start off as a young professional.”
However, that connection was only part of the equation. “I did not actually know much about ACCIONA before the interview, so I did research. I went to the website, and I saw some of the past projects they’ve done. I learned about how international it is, but I also learned about its mission. I was surprised by the place sustainability has in the company.” She adds, “The fact that they had a Sustainability Master Plan. Things seemed more concrete [in ACCIONA].”
“[At the interview with ACCIONA] I had a feeling that it was a very welcoming environment for me to start off as a young professional.”
Tala reflects on that moment when she realized ACCIONA would be her professional destination. “Something that I was told during the interview, and that stuck with me, was that this is an interview by the company and the team to see if I’m a good fit, but it’s also an interview by me to the company to see if it’s a good fit for me and my career goals.”
She sums up, “I always seek things with a purpose. That’s what I’ve always done in my life. If I can’t relate to the place where I work, then I can’t succeed. All of those factors led me to say yes to ACCIONA.”
From theory to practice
She explains that during that first internship in the Quality, Health & Safety, Environment and Sustainability department, she learned a great deal. “For example, the life cycle of a construction project, the different stages it goes through, the ways in which the sustainability team is involved in each stage and how they inform the sustainability master plan. Specifically, [the sustainability master plan] is always one of the main documents that need to be emphasized for all projects. It’s a company that, to me, walks the talk and really puts effort into making a difference.”
“I took courses that were related to what I was exposed to during my time in ACCIONA. For example, waste management, water treatment, and carbon capture.”
After her co-op, Tala continued advancing her degree, with an eye on courses with a practical focus. “I took courses that were related to what I was exposed to during my time in ACCIONA. I took courses on waste management, water treatment, and carbon capture. The carbon capture course was very impactful.”
The capstone project
There was still the final stretch of her studies left. For her capstone project, Tala once again focused on sustainability and innovation. “For my capstone project, I worked with a team to design a green hydrogen production plant and then use part of the produced green hydrogen to make green methanol, which can be used as a marine fuel. [Our project studied] a novel green hydrogen production technology that is not available yet.” She proudly says that her team was awarded as one the best projects in the Process category by the Chemical Engineering department at the University of British Columbia.
“I think [ACCIONA Academy] is a very special thing that the company does. The fact that they invest in the co-op students in that way, for them to meet each other and expand their network within the company.”
The opportunity of ACCIONA Academy
Tala had completed her internship at ACCIONA, but the experience had left a mark on her, and soon a new opportunity arose to participate in a company initiative: the ACCIONA Academy. “For about a week, [the co-op students] would attend workshops and visit some of the company’s projects. There were also speeches from the management team. It was a chance to meaningfully interact with the company and its community. I was invited as a past Co-op student to the first Academy.”
“I think of it as a very special thing that the company does. That does not always happen. The fact that they invest in the co-op students in that way, for them to meet each other and expand their network within the company, to visit the projects and mingle with various roles,” she explains.
By the end of the Academy, her future path was becoming clear. “We agreed that it would be a good idea for me to have some on-the-field experience, at one of the projects. That’s how I was hired for the current project that I’m on right now, which is the Surrey Langley Skytrain Stations project.”
She explains that the project is “an extension of the existing Skytrain Expo line to connect two cities in Metro Vancouver, which are Surrey and Langley.” The team is building eight new stations and three stand-alone propulsion power substations.
For now, the team is working on starting construction. “My day-to-day work at my current role with the Quality team ensures that all the requirements are fulfilled on the project.” Tala looks forward to construction beginning so she can continue gaining experience.
The Innovation Awards
In her current work in infrastructure, Tala is also expanding her knowledge in the field of innovation, alongside Anton Ricafort, the MIT engineer we interviewed some time ago. He is the person behind the Innovation Awards at ACCIONA North America, a competition that brings together employees from across the region in teams to propose the most innovative project.
“I’m very excited for the Innovation Awards. The winner of the competition of 15 teams gets to go to Spain to visit the R&D department and work to develop their innovative idea.”
At the time of our interview, Tala had just attended her first meeting. “The whole program is about 12 weeks. We start by working on our problem statement. The target is to come up with a solution, build a business case, and pitch our solution to the problem. The finalists will deliver in-person presentations.” And she adds, “I’m very excited for it. The winner of the competition of 15 teams gets to go to Spain to visit the R&D department and work to develop their innovative idea.”
The dream of becoming a mentor
Tala has barely started her professional career, but her curiosity and desire to broaden her experience know no bounds. She also expresses another fundamental long-term wish, referring back to the first female engineer who interviewed her at ACCIONA. “She is a very successful female engineer who had a life path that had many intersections with mine. She’s a civil engineer and had some projects that were related to a lot of things that I was interested in.”
Tala talks about some of the things that this director shared with her—the way she supported her in her first steps as a woman in the engineering world. She concludes: “I’m not going to stop learning just because I graduated. I’m working on some certifications and future courses. I want to progress in this field and maybe become someone like her one day.”
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