Tiger Tuesday: a Q&A with Usjid Hameed '17

Meet recent grad Usjid Hameed, a political science major who graduated from TU with a job at the Council of American-Islamic Relations chapter in Columbus, Ohio.

By Megan Bradshaw on July 10, 2017

Usjid Hameed, in the College of Liberal Arts building
Usjid Hameed, in the College of Liberal Arts building

Usjid Hameed, ’17, political science major


Tell me about where you’re from.

I’m from Cockeysville, Maryland, about 20 minutes north of Towson. Cockeysville itself is kind of strange. It is a pretty “white” section of Maryland; however, it has little pockets of communities of color. I grew up in one of those communities of color. I really liked the neighborhood I grew up in; it really informed my understanding of the world. Typical things [I’d do with my friends]…we’d hang out, we’d play a lot of video games like Call of Duty. We had a phase, where we were all into wrestling like WWE. We definitely listened to rap music, different songs and sharing different artists.

Tell me about your family.

I’m an only child. No pets. My mom, for the most of her career, has worked as a leasing consultant for different apartments. My dad has held different jobs. I had a younger cousin living with me for years, so it always felt like I had a younger brother in him. He’s three years younger than me. I grew up in a Muslim Pakistani household. My parents were both born in Pakistan, and I was born here. So it’s been interesting for me to try to reconcile my Pakistani traditional values and my more Western American values.

What made you choose Towson University?

Affordability was definitely one of the biggest things. Distance. I really wanted to live on campus my freshman year, but money was tight. Also, political connections. When I was in high school, I was very involved with the local Democratic party. Ahead of the [then] coming 2014 primary season, I said I wanted to stay close and keep those connections and end up working on a campaign, which I did. I worked for a state delegate campaign and it was a great experience.

How do you spend your free time?

I really like lifting weights. Mentally, it de-stresses me. I feel, being a political science major, I’m very aware of how complicated and sometimes cruel the world can be. Lifting weights is something simple for me [to do] to escape that. Also, physically, you feel better, and I want to live a long healthy life to spend time with friends and family. I also like listening to rap music. I really like it because I like the underdog story of it, and I like the technical wordplay. J.Cole is definitely my favorite. There are some songs he writes that I feel like he’s writing them specifically about a situation I’m going through. There’s this one song “Apparently” in which he talks about his need to spend more time with his mother and how he should be a better son to her. That’s obviously so big in Pakistan. But now that I’m at college, I’m so distracted with everything…I’m trying to be a better son to her and reach out to her more.

How did you get involved in politics?

It started in high school, in an AP history class. The teacher was talking about the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I and how Woodrow Wilson’s hubris made it so the US wouldn’t sign on to the League of Nations, which basically allowed World War II to occur. It occurred to me that human beings, especially Americans being that we are world leaders, we carry tremendous power in our vote and being civically engaged in other fashions. I thought to myself, logically, that if one wanted to help the world, this would be the easiest and simplest way to do that. Go and cast your vote. If someone says an idea that you like and you’re like, “That makes a lot of sense to me. I can see it helping a lot of people. I’m going to go vote for that. I’m going play an active role in making our society better.” And that’s just so powerful. I really wish more people would look at politics like that instead of shying away from it.

What is your favorite class or professor?

My favorite professor is Joseph Clark, Ph.D.. He’s taught a lot of my favorite classes. But the class that sticks out to me with him is a class called US Foreign Policy. I felt like in a lot of my classes before that we were just memorizing information, writing essays, taking tests and stuff like that, but there wasn’t really a mandate to solve the world’s problems. He would teach us information and then say “What do you think we should do about it?” And that was incredibly empowering. We’d talk about Russia, Iran, North Korea, the history of foreign policy, and it ended with a simulation called “What to do about ISIS?”

Everyone in the class had a different role. He made me the president of the United States. So everyone looked to me for a solution. I learned a number of things from that. The first of which is it’s a hard job. I was doing it just in a game, and I got stressed out. I can’t imagine what it’s really like. But also the tremendous issues and the importance of being tactful in the way you go about things, and just really talking to all the involved actors and building consensus. It was really tricky for me to maintain old alliances the US has while trying to forge new ones. Time, I felt, was always running low. How do you be pragmatic while also being optimistic? I really came to appreciate the challenge of making policy and keeping everyone in the loop. 

What is your favorite thing about Towson University?

I would say Towson has a place for everyone. The vast opportunity and the different types of people…like, there’s always like-minded people you can interact with and there’s also less [similarly] minded people you can interact with. The diversity of opinions and beliefs is fascinating. Also the extracurriculars…I know joining my fraternity [Sigma Alpha Epsilon] has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. Greek life and all the other leadership opportunities I’ve been able to play a role in has been so formative. The professors and faculty are super-willing to challenge you as long as you’re willing to be challenged. So a bunch of things.

What are your plans for after graduation?

I’m going to be the legislative and communications coordinator for the Council of American-Islamic Relations chapter in Columbus, Ohio. That was definitely a dream come true. I can’t be more pleased with the way things turned out. I feel like I’ve given 100 percent of my effort during my time here at Towson, especially from junior year onward. I just could not be more thrilled.

I found out the week before break I was going to be a Commencement speaker. That goes back to the leadership opportunities. If I hadn’t developed my public speaking abilities and ability to be sociable with others, I wouldn’t have built the relationships I have now. I wouldn’t have been as inspired to take on the challenges I have and to work to get my GPA up. Just comparing myself when I first came to Towson to where I am now, in a lot of senses, it’s a complete 180. I don’t think it’s because I’m super-special. It’s because Towson gave me the opportunity to do that. I just took those opportunities. I left no stone unturned. I went to Leadershape, I got involved in my fraternity, I worked for Civic Engagement, and I’ve done everything to make myself grow closer to be the person I’ve always wanted to be.

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