Hannah Demeyere

As she grew up in various countries around the world, Hannah was educated through an international school system to give her continuity. This meant all her education has been in English, prompting her to seek out an English-speaking university. However, although she began her undergraduate architecture degree in the UK, it didn’t quite live up to her expectations.

So, Hannah began seeking a more international institution with more personal student interaction. She came across IE University, reached out and found the whole experience to be “incredibly helpful” from the get-go. She was able to come visit, meet students from the architecture degree to answer any questions and was even allowed to take entrance exams on a different day when feeling more fresh. She says this degree is exactly what she was looking for, having smaller class sizes with professors who are experts in their fields and wonderful personalization options.

For Hannah, the professors are a large part of what she enjoys about studying at IE University, citing their willingness to help students even if the questions are outside the curriculum or if the module has ended. This hands-on approach by the professors is echoed by the learning experience as a whole, which regularly takes place outside the classroom on construction sites. Hannah highlights the experience of going to the Torroja Institute in Madrid to observe tests done on different materials to see their breaking point.

These trips are combined with talks and workshops, which Hannah says featured “fascinating speakers over the years.” Aside from these campus events, Hannah is also active in an initiative called the “Closed Loop Campus project,” led by Cem Kayatekin. The aim of this fascinating project is to eliminate food waste on campus, which will involve designing and prototyping vermicomposting structures.

But Hannah has her sights set firmly on the future and she’s always looking ahead to what comes next. She is complimentary of IE University in this respect, mentioning the broad career support you gain access to here. Specifically, Hannah mentions the academic internships in the third and fourth years and the Talent and Careers department as stand-out services. She goes on to explain how the department provides personalized support, looking at your areas of interest and helping facilitate contacts with firms or companies. As part of their support, they have set up Zoom meetings to answer questions and developed a more concrete action plan for her internships.

Hannah’s hobbies generally run along the same lines as her degree, frequently engaging in activities such drawing, painting, photography, sculpture and digital illustration. But we all need an escape from our professional pursuits, and for Hannah, that comes in the form of traveling. While living in Spain, she’s been able to travel to many beautiful cities around the country, and is able to enter museums in Europe for free because of her degree. She even managed to nip over to Florence in her first year to see the Leonardo Da Vinci 500th-anniversary exhibit in the Uffizi Gallery.

Hannah’s current professional aspirations are in either environmental or restorative architecture, and she cites Segovia’s campus as a beautiful example of the latter. This year she’s gearing up to take on her first internship and is very excited about the opportunities it will bring. Whatever happens, we’re sure it will be the first step to a long and fruitful career.