Mehrnaz’s Story

Amanda: This is Ryerson Rewind — a podcast featuring alumni, sharing their fondest memories from Toronto Metropolitan University.

Mehrnaz: My name is Mehrnaz Shokrollahi. I did my PhD here at Toronto Metropolitan University and my undergrad and Masters as well, all of them in electrical engineering. I graduated in 2015. I was born and raised in Iran and I was 18 when I came to Canada. So, moving to Canada was not easy. It was definitely hard because we had to leave our family and friends behind and come and start a new life, basically start from scratch. I really am thankful to my family and parents for just giving up everything they had and bringing us here to build a better life for us. I’m really thankful to them. When we immigrated to Canada, the university both my sister and I got admitted to was Toronto Metropolitan University and we chose Toronto Metropolitan University so that we could be together. It was the best feeling because you had your best friend as your sister, which is your classmate and you are like kind of competing with her because she was like very competitive and very smart and at the beginning books were expensive to buy so we would only buy one book and read together, share the books. So one person would be responsible for one chapter, would read it, explain it to the other person and then we’d move on. So that’s how we started the first few years but then we were like no this is not going to happen, it’s not too easy, we have to invest in more books. But it was really good because we did a lot of stuff together, and we become very close, like closer than what we were before. My brother came to Canada a couple of years after us, and he’s older than us, so when he came my brother joined and we did our Masters together in the same program under the same supervisor. And I love just Toronto Metropolitan University and the research I was doing the professor I was working with, so I stayed to continue my PhD. And that’s how I ended up doing all my program here at Toronto Metropolitan University. So here is Eric Palin Hall, the EPH building that’s where I did half of my Masters, and all my PhD, in here on the fourth floor, in the corner office and I sat at the same desk, which was by the window, very secluded area but very great spot to focus and work. And as I step inside the building I just get a wave of nostalgic feeling just splashed on my face and it's just a great place to be. I just I missed it so much because I grew up here a lot. And I was here everyday and I met my husband here at Toronto Metropolitan University at the EPH building. My office is in fourth floor of this building and the room was 439 and his room was 339. So he was one floor below me and we would meet on the elevator, so we were active doing exams, monitoring here at Toronto Metropolitan University, and that’s how we met and we started talking. At the beginning we were like OK, let’s just go slow and let's just take it easy. But in six months we got engaged, in nine months we officially got married and we moved in together, and now I’m pregnant so we are having a baby in September, so it was a great experience. Toronto Metropolitan University looks like it's a family. You know, you feel you are at a school, you don’t feel, even when you talk to your professors, it’s like that family relation and this is how I felt maybe because I had my family at Toronto Metropolitan University, that is how I feel it. I felt that everyone is so nice and supportive and helpful and it’s great, I mean I loved Toronto Metropolitan University, and I am always so happy and proud to be a Ryersonian. 

Amanda: This podcast is a production of the Ryerson University Alumni Association. I’m Amanda Cupido, a proud member of the board of directors, and the producer and editor of this podcast. For more stories like the one you just heard visit torontomu.ca/alumni.