Logan Hawker

Degree: B.S., Mechanical Engineering
Hometown: Mechanicsville, VA
Plans: Flight test engineer, Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, MD

“UMBC encourages exploration of all types and learning that gives students valuable experience beyond the classroom. At UMBC, you have so many job opportunities all around you.”

Logan Hawker ‘22, mechanical engineering, chose UMBC because she wanted to feel supported both in the classroom and on the softball field. She knew it would be a challenge to pursue an engineering degree as a D1 athlete, but thanks to careful time management and guidance from mentors, she has balanced her courses, her practice and game schedules, and several other meaningful opportunities, on and off campus. 

Hawker worked with Jamie Gurganus ‘04, M.S. ‘11, Ph.D. ‘20, faculty in mechanical engineering and associate director of engineering education initiatives, as the head teaching fellow for UMBC’s introduction to engineering design course. As a teaching fellow, Hawker held office hours for students in the course, answering questions and offering additional support. Hawker also oversaw the mechanical engineering 3D printing lab.

Off campus, Hawker served as an F-18 flight test engineer intern for the Navy at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. She developed flight test plans and briefed pilots, then monitored test flight data from a control room. She will work there full-time as a flight test engineer after graduation.

Former Humanities Scholar, Anjali DasSarma graduated from UMBC in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in Media and Communication Studies with a minor in Journalism and is now pursuing her Master's in American Studies at Brown University. She will be graduating from Brown University in May 2022 and will be attending the University of Pennsylvania to pursue her PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication in the Fall of 2022. She eventually wants to teach in higher education and has a passion for teaching and loves to talk with people.

Kristen Anchor, a lecturer with the MCS department, had the opportunity to talk with her about her experience at UMBC and the MCS program. Her experience was a positive one, and she highlighted the course content and the professors especially. She says that one of the best parts of UMBC for her were the MCS professors. 

"They're amazing. I think they were the best part of my time at UMBC as a whole."

She found the faculty to be extremely helpful as they taught her in classes as well as with finding internship opportunities. Anjali was able to find an on-campus internship with the help of Dr. Snyder. This internship was with the Division of Professional Studies where she was able to gain experience in digital marketing. She was the Editor-in-Chief for the Retriever and interned at the Baltimore Sun, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Newseum, UMBC Magazine, and Atwater's. She mentioned that she appreciated the flexibility of MCS and that she was able to earn credit through her internships. Additionally, the MCS coursework and material gave her a good foundation as she approached these different internships. Anjali says, "MCS helped me think critically about the work that I was doing which led me to want to do that on a professional level."

In addition to the hands-on experience and practice she obtained through her internship and media classes, she also learned a lot about the theory and history of communication. 

"MCS really helped me develop this really strong theoretical understanding of media, which helped me a lot especially given that I'm now doing academia, and having that theoretical basis is really fundamental. And also just learning good pedagogy from these professors; the way that they teach, the way they engage with students, it is really student focused, and I appreciated that a lot when I was there." 

The research she is conducting now at Brown University is on the topic "examining self-emancipatory advertisements related to Indigenous peoples and colonial era newspapers." According to Anjali, "I wanted to spend a lot of time understanding historic violences and historic silences and erasures and obstruction of journalism disturbing communities. I do that because I do believe that journalism is really valuable, but I think that historically and in contemporary America it's really failing marginalized communities. It was really those internship experiences that made me want to research. So I did my capstone project with Professor Yang, and I did that on connecting slavery studies and self-emancipatory advertisements in newspapers to contemporary challenges. And then when I got to Brown, now I work with a history professor looking at indigenous enslavement and how the newspaper industry contributed to the brokering of the slave trade. So it's really intense stuff, but I feel as though it's really important for communication historians... to be understanding history in order to move forward in repertory spaces." 

She feels that although institutional injustices were being recognized and acknowledged, there still wasn't anymore that was being done and it "wasn't really going anywhere, [and] that a lot of people were doing very surface level work, and I wanted to kind of dig deeper."

Since graduating, Anjali has had many opportunities to grow and deepen her knowledge and go deeper into her research. She's been able to work on different research projects such as the one mentioned previously as well as another where she is exploring the topic of historical, institutional apologies in Baltimore specifically. She is also a teaching assistant and had the opportunity to teach a class for the first time which was a new and exciting experience that she was able to have recently. 

"I've grown a lot as a researcher and as a thinker and as an academic. I've struggled with the questions of being an ethical academic, like looking at relationships between an institution that I'm at and the community that surrounds it... I do think I've grown quite a lot... I keep thinking 'how has it only been a year?' But I feel very grateful to UMBC for giving me a platform to grow and to succeed, and again, that flexibility to have been able to have all those experiences."

Medusa will display the Development Proposal, Institutional Proposal and Award all in one place. So you only need one number to see all the connections to your sponsored proposal or award.

For information on how to use Medusa, see:  How to Use Medusa

https://research.umbc.edu/kuali-research-at-umbc/kuali-quick-reference-cards/

(Reminder- you must have permission to view the proposal and award, based on what Kuali Roles and Permissions you are granted. Contact your OSP Manager if you need additional access.) " 

GESTAR II SEMINAR SERIES

Rehman Liaqat ’22, political science, has received the inaugural Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic (CCMA) Civic Fellowship. He is one of 13 students chosen from institutions across Maryland, Delaware, and Washington D.C. This honor follows Liaqat’s recent recognition as a 2022 finalist for the prestigious Truman Scholarship.

The CCMA Civic Fellows program develops student leaders who are “engaged global citizens, actively contributing to the creation of equitable, healthy, sustainable, and socially just communities.” CCMA will provide Liaqat with learning and networking opportunities that emphasize personal, professional, and civic growth. This includes conversations with regional and national experts focused on leadership development and advancing equity through civic and community engagement in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Crossing bridges

Liaqat came to the United States from Pakistan when he was eleven. He spent his teen years in Wicomico County Public Schools in Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. His time was split between school and working at OC Quickstop, one of three family-owned gas stations. In a predominantly white public high school, Liquat felt like he didn’t quite fit.

In retrospect, not fitting in gave him insight into managing two cultures, two countries, and many different social worlds. So when a group of Pakistani women moved into his apartment complex, Liaqat’s mother encouraged him to serve as a cultural tutor of sorts. Two times a week he would review how to fill out school forms for their children, apply for other resources, and access services.

”I found value in the knowledge I had acquired transitioning into living and working in Salisbury,” says Liaqat. These skills became a tool to help the Pakistani women feel empowered as members of the community.

This project caught the attention of Liaqat’s English teacher, who nominated him for a Light of Literacy Youth Luminary award hosted by the Friends of the Wicomico County Public Libraries. At the award ceremony, he connected with local leaders who invited him to volunteer on political campaigns. He didn’t know at the time how all of these experiences would shape his path. 

Transformative mediation

When Liaqat began researching colleges he wasn’t sure what his future would look like, but he did have a clear example of the impact he wanted to have from his grandfather. His grandfather leads community-oriented mediation sessions through restorative practices among local villagers in Chak Pindi, Punjab, Pakistan. The villagers depend on his grandfather’s mediation skills, Liaqat explains, because often they cannot depend on the legal system, due to cost and corruption.

“When I was eight I began to sit next to him as he mediated. It showed me, at an early age, the dire need in our community for advocacy and well-being, especially when the systems in place become undependable,” says Liaqat. “Reflecting back, sitting next to him and observing his mediation depicts, to me, the power of meaningful public service. This work can completely transform the lives of people left vulnerable by the system and by society.”

His experiences in Maryland and in Pakistan revealed to him the importance of representation and community action. He ardently worked to convince his parents that attending UMBC—a diverse community rich with new opportunities for his future—was the best decision for him. He would be the first-ever member of his family, across generations, to move out of the family home to go to college. 

It wasn’t just moving out, but moving away across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, 2.5 hours from Salisbury. Over the past four years, Liaqat has driven back home every weekend to work at his family’s gas station. He’s also remained involved with his communities, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

Beyond my comfort zone

“My family is very traditional,” says Liaqat. “They are very proud of me and what I have accomplished.” At the same time, he says he is very proud of himself for “going out of my comfort zone to become the person I want to be.”

Liaqat, who will be entering Georgetown University in the fall, thanks his mentors for guiding him toward increasingly challenging growth opportunities throughout his four years. During his first week on campus, he reached out to four faculty and staff members for guidance and resources. He was surprised by the immediate and heartfelt responses he received from them all, and their willingness to answer all of his questions without hesitation. 

Lori Hardesty, associate director of applied learning and community engagement at UMBC’s Shriver Center, connected Liaqat with an applied learning experience. “She was the first person to ‘see me’ at UMBC,” shares Liaqat. “I still remember sitting in her office four years ago when she said, “What matters is that you are here now and you have the opportunity to make a difference every day.’’ 

Liaqat also remembers being inspired by the words of Sargent Shriver, the center’s namesake, who said, “Serve, serve, serve… because, in the end, it will be the servants who save us all.” Shriver’s meaningful contributions to society have become an inspiration for a journey of lifelong service, says Liaqat. 

Over the years, Liaqat has served as a peer mentor and peer facilitator for the Shriver First-Year Experience course and as a workshop facilitator for UMBC’s Community Read program. Through the Shriver Center, he has also helped support Baltimore City students by participating in the Choice Program’s annual Jam and Slam event and College Night program. 

“As a son of Pakistani immigrants who was the first to pursue higher education in the U.S., I was expected to pursue a path that was determined for me,” says Liaqat. “However, as I became a member of UMBC’s Shriver Living Learning Community, I felt more confident embracing a path of my own design.”

Broader perspective

With the support of the Shriver Center, Liaqat felt more comfortable seeking out mentors and exploring UMBC’s social change resources. He remembers fondly walking into the Center for Democracy and Civic Life intent on creating a UMBC football team. 

There he met Center Director David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, language, literacy, and culture (LLC), and Assistant Director Romy Hübler ’09, modern languages and linguistics, M.A. ’11, intercultural communication, Ph.D. ’15, LLC. “They didn’t know who I was and I had no idea if the center would listen to all of my ideas,” says Liaqat. 

For weeks Hoffman and Hübler sat with him as he shared his passionate ideas. “They never deterred me,” says Liaqat. Instead, they walked him through the process of seeing different points of view and the intentionality of the decision of university leadership to invest in a broad range of sports rather than putting significant funds toward a football team. This process informed his work in student and community organizations for the rest of his time at UMBC.

“Rehman arrived at UMBC with a thirst for learning, a desire to make a difference, and big ideas,” says Hübler. “Over the past four years, we have spent many hours talking about his commitment to addressing social issues and approaches he could take to doing so. It has been a wonderful experience seeing him build relationships, empower his peers, and strengthen our community.” 

Beyond theory

In a political science course, William Blake, associate professor and associate chair of political science, brought to life constitutional law for Liaqat. He enrolled in all of Blakes’s human and civil rights classes, discovering a passion for understanding the power of a constitution to impact lives. He joined UMBC’s Moot Court team and eventually became its president, with Blake as the organization’s faculty advisor. 

“Rehman is one of those rare students whose passion, curiosity, and analytical skills make him a force to be reckoned with,” says Blake. “He is an impressive student leader, and it has been a pleasure to have a chance to teach him and work with him on the UMBC Moot Court team.” 

Liaqat also worked closely with Carolyn Forestiere, professor of political science, as executive president of the department’s council of majors. “Rehman has been a guiding force in our Council of Majors over the past several years,” Forestiere says. She notes that Liaqat has been instrumental in very important ways, including co-leading an effort to develop a diversity, inclusion, and equity initiative that would impact the department’s syllabi and curricula.

“His professionalism and passion for promoting positive change are fundamental elements of his character,” says Forestiere. “He leaves a legacy of sincere compassion and engaged activism that I hope students emulate for years to come.”

Growing confidence, growing impact

Through mentorship and new experiences, Liaqat’s confidence grew. He learned to navigate diverse political environments as a legal intern at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, Maryland’s State’s Attorney’s Office, and at Pakistan’s Supreme Court and Ministry of Human Rights. He is now the co-founder of a human rights legal aid organization in Pakistan, which has been asked to expand its reach by local leaders. And he has pursued an accelerated master’s degree in public policy at UMBC alongside his undergraduate degree.

Liaqat arrived at UMBC in 2018 full of excitement, but also uncertainty. “Coming to UMBC meant my family would be far away. I was a college kid who had a lot of ambitions to do more, but had never gone beyond my home environment,” says Liaqat. He says his mentors gave him the self-assurance to grow in new directions while still remaining part of his family’s life and culture. 

Now, Liaqat is graduating as a CCMA Civic Fellow who will soon begin a joint master’s of public policy and juris doctor program at the McCourt School of Public Policy and the Georgetown University Law Center.

Liaqat says he was told “UMBC is a magical place” during orientation, and this proved to be true. He has had meaningful, enriching civic engagement experiences throughout his undergraduate years. “UMBC’s magic is real, genuine, and more alive than ever,” he says, “because of the commitment and devoted service by every member of its community.”

He hopes to take a piece of this magic with him well after graduation. The first step will be living out his Civic Fellowship’s driving mission: to create equitable, healthy, sustainable, and socially just communities. He says, “I want to show future generations of Pakistani students all that is possible.”