Mo’ath (Mo) Nazzal wanted more out of college than the degree he would earn. 

“I wanted to make sure that I got the most out of my education and wanted to help others do the same,” he said.

And that’s why he is a Difference Maker.

“He is very generous with his time and routinely volunteers to help his fellow students,” said Bruce Elenbogen, professor of computer and information science.

Mo served as a student instructor for the Computer and Information Science Department, offering many individual and group tutoring sessions. He helped re-energize the computing honor society and served as president of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), where he doubled its membership, brought more recruiters to campus and organized events to benefit students.

“He has created a culture of community service where the members take pride in volunteering,” said Bruce Maxim, associate professor of computer and information science. “Mo has organized dozens of educational and social events, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and working as a part-time developer at Ford.”

Mo also focused his time and energy on K-12 community outreach events to get students interested and involved in engineering and computer science at a young age. He participated in high school programming contests and organized more than a dozen events for middle and high school students, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. 

“Mo has showed great leadership and has been very unselfish in sharing his time with younger students both on campus and from neighboring public schools,” said Professor Maxim.

Excelling in the classroom, Mo earned his place on the Dean’s List every semester. He recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer information science and continues to pursue two passions—learning his field and helping others.

“My life goal is to continue learning and furthering my knowledge in computer science," he said. "I would like to continually explore new solutions to problems faced by individuals, at work or in life.”