Student at the Freie Universität Berlin looking for a room

My name is Carmine Ceraolo and I’m a 21 years old student from Italy. I attended a Classical Studies High School in Italy, where particular stress is put on studying humanistic subjects such as philosophy, Italian, Latin and Old Greek.

When I was 16-17 a spent a year of my life in Thailand. There I lived in a Thai family and went to a Thai school, where scientific subjects (math, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology) were taught in English.
I had the chance to learn a very diverse culture and weigh it against my own. Thailand taught that culture comes with beauty and pain. Culture endows us with some obligations that seem to have no reason or even cause harm and must be challenged, but it also gifts us with some beauties that we warmly enjoy and share with others.
During that exchange year I became friends with wonderful people from different countries and of different ages, some of which are still very close friends of mine and whom I contact regularly.

Fueled by a passion in science, in 2017 I started an international Bachelor’s degree in Genomics at the University of Bologna.
During this study program I learned a good amount of bioinformatics, a science in which biology, programming and statistics meet in order to answer complex biological questions and investigate the phenomena of life. The professors have been very enthusiastic in introducing us into the world of biology and statistics.
At the end of my degree I had the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge bioinformatic research and co-publish two scientific papers on the newly emerged coronavirus.

1) Ceraolo, C. and Giorgi, F.M., 2020. Genomic variance of the 2019‐nCoV coronavirus. Journal of medical virology, 92(5), pp.522-528.
2) Guzzi, P.H., Mercatelli, D., Ceraolo, C. and Giorgi, F.M., 2020. Master regulator analysis of the SARS-CoV-2/human Interactome. Journal of clinical medicine, 9(4), p.982.).

Now I am terminating my thesis on how the frequency of the mutations of the new coronavirus behave in time. I will officially graduate this October.
Many strong friendships were born during these three years and will hopefully accompany me throughout my life. It has been a wonderful learning experience for me and my classmates who are now spreading all over Europe to continue with our Master’s studies.

The Freie Universität Berlin accepted me to a Master’s program in Bioinformatics this summer and I gladly enrolled. I will spend two years of my life living in Berlin starting from October of this year, right after my graduation ceremony. I look forward to start studying in a new university, moving to a new nation and learning a new language.

During my Bachelor’s degree I lived in two different student’s dormitory. On the first year I lived in the freshmen dormitory, where I shared a small single room apartment with another student. Together, he and I learned how to manage living together in such small spaces. Our cooking abilities improved and we often ate lunch or dinner together. Starting from the second year I lived in a bigger dormitory, in which six other boys and I shared a flat. We often went to the library together to spend afternoon studying as well as go out to party in the weekend. We often used to eat together, along with the students living in the flat next door. During the coronavirus quarantine we substituted the traditional Easter family lunch with a feast of our own making. Living so close together came along with the duty of respecting each other’s spaces, establishing turns for doing the chores and taking care not to make noise every time one of us had to study for an important exam. These two years have been full of wonderful family-like moments which I will wholeheartedly recall for many years to come.

After my graduation in October I will be moving to Berlin to continue my studies and I will be living there for two years. My graduation ceremony will be on the 12th of October, therefore I will be able to leave Italy just a couple of days thereafter. If you choose me as your tenant, I am flexible to any arrangement within my capabilities.

I love studying and reading.
Enthusiasm is the single word that better describes my attitude toward studying. I am very passionate in what I learn and always try to dedicate some time to learning beyond the scope of my study program, as instance, by learning about more linear algebra, physics, calculus or linguistics.
I am very fond of books. I am often seen with something to read in my hands. I like both essays, either scientific or historical, and novels. The A Song of Ice and Fire saga and Dune rank among my top favourite stories whereas Yuval Noah Harari and Jared Diamond are my favourite essays writers, with Sapiens and The World Until Yesterday being among my favourite books ever.

I workout at least five times a week. From the beginning of the pandemic I started a body weight workout regime and haven’t changed since. For most of my life I used to go to the gym or out for a run. I like very much fighting sports or martial arts. I practiced karate when I was in elementary school, judo when I was in middle school and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) during my first year of university. I like to hike and admire in awe at the beauty of the mountains. I like swimming in the sea or if I come across a river or lake.

I look forward to moving to Berlin and I hope to hear back from you soon!

A warm greeting,

Sincerely,

Carmine