Illona Hartman

Hometown: Velserbroek, the Netherlands

Expected Graduation: Spring 2019

Illona was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, which is related to the neighborhood of Harlem, New York. She transferred to Ohio University after a year of college at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Illona could not speak much English before coming to Ohio University, and improving her English was one of the reasons she chose to study abroad.

She didn’t get to visit prior to moving, but OHIO’s “greenscape” and pictures on Google Maps made her heart flutter. Now in her fourth year, she’s still in love with the lush campus.

In addition to her involvement as an Engineering Ambassador for civil engineering, Illona is a starter for the Ohio University Field Hockey team and a commissioner for the board of the civil engineering honor society Chi Epsilon. She’s also an active member of national engineering honorary Tau Beta Pi and professional engineering fraternity Theta Tau, and she was involved in the Global Engineering Projects organization.

In her free time, she writes a personal blog about her life as a student athlete in the United States.