ESP Biography



OTTO SAYMEH, Columbia undergraduate architecture student



Major: Architecture

College/Employer: Columbia University

Year of Graduation: 2020

Picture of Otto Saymeh

Brief Biographical Sketch:

My name is Otto Saymeh and I am a senior undergraduate student at the school of General Studies, Columbia University. Originally from Damascus, Syria, I have been in the United States for seven years and I am currently in the process of continuing my graduate education in architecture.
In 2016, I had finished a college degree in business from a community college in Texas before working in different career fields such as education, architecture, and retail along with different entrepreneurial experiences in different states. My experiences, educational and professional, made me realize the importance of education even more as I planned to continue my journey at Columbia University in the year 2018.
Through Columbia, I came to discover the impact of education in breaking down barriers between people and in building common bridges of understanding across continents. Through this program, I hope to be able to influence as many students to pursue a career that can extend in its impact to reach our global community beyond any personal goals.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

Y924: Modern Architecture History in Splash Fall 2020 (Nov. 07, 2020)
The course will take on a survey format to cover the modern history of architecture as we know it. Through a broad understanding of major architectural movements throughout the 20th century, students will be able to understand the impacts of contemporary architecture retrospectively.