Laila Masalha was born in Gaza in 2002, into a family shaped by movement long before her own life began. Her father, a Palestinian refugee born in Syria, had lived across the Middle East and Europe while pursuing maritime law. Returning to Gaza for a development project, he met Laila’s mother, whose family had lived there for generations. Laila grew up in her grandparents’ home — a lively space filled with relatives, her grandfather’s clinic, and a garden that shaped her earliest memories.
Childhood in Gaza held both beauty and tension: the sea, family gatherings, and warmth set against the distant sounds of conflict. When she was six, her father received a sudden job offer in the West Bank. With only hours to prepare, she remembers packing small objects without understanding she would never again live in that home.
After two years, the family moved to Albania. Arriving without English or Albanian, Laila quickly adapted, experiencing, for the first time, freedom of movement. At eleven, her father’s diplomatic posting took the family to Dubai and later Abu Dhabi, where international schools and diverse classmates shaped her global identity.
Arriving in Kingston at seventeen, drawn to Queen’s biochemistry program, Laila faced homesickness and the absence of the close-knit community she had always known. The pandemic forced her to return to her parents, who soon relocated again—this time to Romania—making Canada the place where she would now build her life.
At Queen’s, she found belonging through research. Her undergraduate thesis sparked a deep passion for scientific inquiry, and during her master’s studies, her work led to a pending patent and industry collaboration.
In 2022, a year before the war began, Laila returned to Gaza to visit her grandfather during his final illness. Knowing it might be her last visit, she salvaged a photograph of her mother in graduation robes — an image that became a treasured link to memory and identity. Six months later, her grandfather passed away, and soon after, the family home where she had grown up was destroyed, marking the end of a family legacy and igniting within her a renewed sense of purpose.
Now 23, Laila continues her work in Kingston, preparing for a PhD and shaping a future rooted in resilience, memory, and hope.