university 9.uni.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

When Rachel El-Mourli began attending Harrisburg University, there were no student handbooks, no alumni and no 16-story building on Market Street.

That was August 2005, the very first semester of classes at the university when the school had just 113 students and a couple of classrooms at SciTech High School. El-Mourli, 31, of Harrisburg, has the distinction of being one of the school's pioneer students, and she's a member of the first class to attend the school for a full four years.

Signing on with a university so new was a risk for those first-year students. But as she walked across the stage with 12 of her classmates at Harrisburg University's commencement ceremony Thursday night, she felt assured, not nervous, about the degree she was receiving.

"I'm really proud to have been a part of this," she said. "I'm responsible for making the school proud with my professional life. It was hard, but it was good."

Hard might be putting it nicely.

The fledgling school moved three times while El-Mourli was a student. She laughingly remembers the searches for new offices and the cold winter walks down Market Street to get to class. Added to that were the difficulties of raising her two children and opening a new business with her husband.

"Life doesn't stop when you go to college," El-Mourli said.

But with those challenges came opportunities. A new school meant fewer rules. El-Mourli designed her own integrated science degree, taking internships with the Dauphin County coroner and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. She even helped design the school's cell-culture lab.

There's plenty of opportunity to make your mark on a school with no history, but that's not going to stop with her, she said.

"It's all part of the entrepreneurial spirit of the school," she said. "That's not going to be lost just because the pioneering students are gone."

El-Mourli plans to get a job in the biotech field, but she's already got her eyes set on a master's degree from Penn State University. She hopes to work for the Department of Homeland Security.

Being there from the beginning has made her connection to the school stronger, she said.

"When I'm in a position to give money, I'll give," she said. "I want to be the first student to sit on the board. I want to be involved with the university my whole life. That's how much I believe in it."


Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire