Queens University Charlotte Providing Student A Unique Degree Under Unique Circumstances
Irene Zvorsky ’24 is already certain about what she’s doing after commencement.
“I’m moving to Texas in July for a mechanical engineer role with Trane Technologies,” she said.
The corporation, which is a conglomerate holding numerous brands, is a leader in residential, commercial and transportation energy solutions.
An internship with the company in summer 2023 led to the job offer. Remarkably, before her final year at Queens began last August, Zvorsky had already secured the position.
Zvorsky will have earned her Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics, which is a relatively new major at Queens. In fact, she’ll be one of the first students to complete the program, which launched at Queens in the fall of 2020.
On her initial visit to campus, as a 14-year-old competing in a field hockey tournament, Zvorsky found that the top-notch sports facilities and athletic opportunities were appealing. Zvorsky, who grew up in Pennsylvania, hoped to attend a university that valued educational goals and personal growth but also student-athletes.
“I was a student-athlete here for the first two years,” she said. “That’s very time consuming and there’s no way I could have been a student-athlete and an engineering major at any other school in the country. I was really grateful that I was able to find that degree and field hockey in one place.”
Zvorsky said that the opportunities, courses and professors at Queens were invaluable to her. Through the engineering physics major, she is prepared with skills in everything from supply chain management to coding. The distinctive program, she said, has exposed her to a multitude of options for pursuing her career.
Connecting classroom learning with real-life application has been a powerful in her experience with “amazing professors” in the program.
“The two professors I’ve had that were more directly related to the physics and engineering side were very influential. Dr. K (Soroush Khosravi Dehaghi, Ph.D.) has been by far the best professor and mentor,” said Zvorsky.
The program is math and physics focused which, as a first-year student in high school, was not something that Zvorsky would’ve imagined herself comfortable with. “Actually, I used to be terrible at math,” she said.
But, like her experience at Queens, she had a teacher who made an incredibly positive impact on her learning in math. She was inspired by this newfound confidence, as well as her older brother’s engineering career.
The past few years at Queens have shown Zvorsky that she found a perfect fit at Queens — one that has given her a solid foundation for the future.
“It’s just been the most accommodating experience,” Zvorsky said. “It allowed me to work, to play hockey — it’s just allowed me to do so much — which I think made me a much more well-rounded person and well-rounded engineer, which I think is really what led me to get the job.”
“I think the best thing about Queens is the customizability that they provide allowing you to get a unique degree under unique circumstances.”