Department of Astronomy and Physics; College of Science; AU Mic b / en Hakeem Oluseyi inspires Mason students with “hope, hustle, and help” /news/2021-10/hakeem-oluseyi-inspires-mason-students-hope-hustle-and-help <span>Hakeem Oluseyi inspires Mason students with “hope, hustle, and help”</span> <span><span lang="" about="/user/251" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="">John Hollis</span></span> <span>Wed, 10/27/2021 - 15:28</span> <div class="layout layout--gmu layout--twocol-section layout--twocol-section--70-30"> <div class="layout__region region-first"> <div data-block-plugin-id="field_block:node:news_release:body" class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodenews-releasebody"> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-visually_hidden"> <div class="field__label visually-hidden">Body</div> <div class="field__item"><h2>Professor Hakeem Oluseyi attributes his unlikely rise from the pull of poverty and crime to hope, hustle, and help, and he wants to pay it forward. </h2> <p>Now a renowned astrophysicist, inventor, and author who regularly offers his expert analysis on TV, AV Visiting Robinson Professor Hakeem Oluseyi credits education as his gateway to a better life. Raised by a single mother with little education, he lived in some of the nation’s toughest neighborhoods while constantly moving around and eventually being drawn into criminal activities at a young age. </p> <p> </p> <hr /><div class="align-center"> <div class="field field--name-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img src="/sites/g/files/yyqcgq291/files/styles/extra_large_content_image/public/2022-10/img-Oluseyi-classroom.jpg?itok=aTjgCwV4" width="1080" height="720" alt="Hakeem Oluseyi stands in front of his class" loading="lazy" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <hr /><p> </p> <h3>An unlikely journey </h3> <p>A career in astrophysics seemed unlikely at best during Oluseyi’s youth, when stability was little more than a wishful fantasy following his parents’ divorce when he was 4 years old. His mother desperately sought opportunities to improve their lives, so the family was often on the move. Oluseyi says he never attended the same school or lived in the same state for more than two consecutive years, with the family often moving multiple times during the school year. </p> <p>As a result, Oluseyi has experienced daily life in some of the nation’s toughest neighborhoods, including Houston’s 3rd Ward, New Orleans’s 9th Ward, and South Central Los Angeles, where some of his cousins were part of the notorious Crips gang who were, according to Oluseyi, “robbing banks and worse.” </p> <p>In the final 16 months of that difficult 10-year stretch, Oluseyi lived in nine different households while attending five different schools in three different states. </p> <p>Through it all, a young Oluseyi found refuge from the chaos in books, and his mental acuity quickly drew the attention of teachers and others, who saw his vast potential and helped guide him to another path. </p> <div style="background-image:url(https://content.sitemasonry.gmu.edu/sites/g/files/yyqcgq336/files/2022-10/img-quote-BGgraphic.png); background-size:60%; background-repeat:no-repeat; padding: 3% 3% 3% 6%;"> <p><span class="intro-text">“For me, education was a pathway... so I feel like I have to do for others what was done for me. I got by on hope, hustle, and help. That help didn’t just show up out of the blue, so I have to do the same thing.”</span></p> </div> <p>After enlisting in the U.S. Navy at age 17, Oluseyi eventually received a dual bachelor of science degree from Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Oluseyi has chronicled his stirring personal story in his bestselling memoir, <i>A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars. </i></p> <p><i> </i></p> <hr /><div class="align-center"> <div class="field field--name-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img src="/sites/g/files/yyqcgq291/files/2022-10/img-Oluseyi-classroom-closeup.jpg" width="1080" height="720" alt="Robinson Professor Hakeem Oluseyi lecturing AV students" loading="lazy" typeof="foaf:Image" /></div> </div> <hr /><p> </p> <h3>Engage students, change lives </h3> <p>Oluseyi, who was the first person in his family to graduate from high school, now boasts a PhD from Stanford University and has held previous professorships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California-Berkeley.</p> <p>He was the chief science officer for Discovery Communications and spent 2016 to 2019 at NASA’s headquarters, where he served as the space science education manager for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program. He has written or co-written more than 100 scientific publications and has 11 patents. </p> <p>Oluseyi hopes to help change the lives of Mason students the same positive ways that others did for him many years ago. He says part of why he wanted to come to Mason, out of all the colleges and universities in the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area, was to be somewhere he could make a direct impact on students from working-class communities. </p> <div style="background-image:url(https://content.sitemasonry.gmu.edu/sites/g/files/yyqcgq336/files/2022-10/img-quote-BGgraphic.png); background-size:60%; background-repeat:no-repeat; padding: 3% 3% 3% 6%;"> <p><span class="intro-text">"There are people for whom someone like myself can make a difference in their life.”</span></p> </div> <p>Oluseyi began teaching classes in the spring 2022 semester, and he plans to engage with student groups and students in his classes to help grow community. </p> <hr /></div> </div> </div> <div data-block-plugin-id="field_block:node:news_release:field_content_topics" class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodenews-releasefield-content-topics"> <h2>Topics</h2> <div class="field field--name-field-content-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-visually_hidden"> <div class="field__label visually-hidden">Topics</div> <div class="field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6881" hreflang="en">Robinson Professors</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/291" hreflang="en">College of Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/3341" hreflang="en">Department of Astronomy and Physics; College of Science; AU Mic b</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/116" hreflang="en">Campus News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/7781" hreflang="en">Faculty News</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="layout__region region-second"> <div data-block-plugin-id="inline_block:feature_image" data-inline-block-uuid="9ec33531-ea70-42bb-b0a8-4cc1efc652e8" class="block block-feature-image block-layout-builder block-inline-blockfeature-image caption-below"> <div class="feature-image"> <div class="narrow-overlaid-image"> <img src="/sites/g/files/yyqcgq291/files/styles/feature_image_medium/public/2022-10/img-Oluseyi-success-through-grit.png?itok=NVah_NAF" srcset="/sites/g/files/yyqcgq291/files/styles/feature_image_small/public/2022-10/img-Oluseyi-success-through-grit.png?itok=1EAEJwgA 768w, /sites/g/files/yyqcgq291/files/styles/feature_image_medium/public/2022-10/img-Oluseyi-success-through-grit.png?itok=NVah_NAF 1024w, /sites/g/files/yyqcgq291/files/styles/feature_image_large/public/2022-10/img-Oluseyi-success-through-grit.png?itok=jpXCtO-N 1280w, " sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 80vw,100vw" alt="Success Through Grit" /></div> </div> </div><div data-block-plugin-id="inline_block:text" data-inline-block-uuid="bdeddc7d-3aa8-461a-849a-54ab51bae29c" class="block block-layout-builder block-inline-blocktext"> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><span class="intro-text">More From Hakeem Oluseyi</span></p> </div> </div> <div data-block-plugin-id="inline_block:text" data-inline-block-uuid="bb37c886-99b7-46a1-a209-8801c6b3a4ec" class="block block-layout-builder block-inline-blocktext"> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><div class="align-center" style="min-width: 50%;"> <div class="field field--name-field-media-video-embed-field field--type-video-embed-field field--label-hidden field__item"><div class="video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video"><iframe width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o8c2Xx0twkM?autoplay=0&start=0&rel=0"></iframe> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div data-block-plugin-id="inline_block:text" data-inline-block-uuid="36d1f31d-2232-4cbb-b2b1-62f6d960efa1" class="block block-layout-builder block-inline-blocktext"> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In this excerpt, Hakeem Oluseyi reflects on his love of books, and how this helped him cope with daily life.</p> <p>Listen to Oluseyi's full interview, including more about his life, what aliens might look like, and how the pull of the classroom overcame the pull of the streets on <strong><a href="/news/2021-11/podcast-ep32-hakeem-oluseyi-calls-his-education-matter-life-and-death">Mason's Access to Excellence podcast</a>.</strong></p> <hr /><p> </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="layout layout--gmu layout--twocol-section layout--twocol-section--30-70"> <div> </div> <div> </div> </div> Wed, 27 Oct 2021 19:28:50 +0000 John Hollis 56386 at Mason researchers part of a team that discovered a new planet the size of Neptune /news/2020-07/mason-researchers-part-team-discovered-new-planet-size-neptune <span>Mason researchers part of a team that discovered a new planet the size of Neptune</span> <span><span lang="" about="/user/251" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="">John Hollis</span></span> <span>Thu, 07/16/2020 - 05:00</span> <div class="layout layout--gmu layout--twocol-section layout--twocol-section--30-70"> <div class="layout__region region-first"> </div> <div class="layout__region region-second"> <div data-block-plugin-id="field_block:node:news_release:field_content_topics" class="block block-layout-builder block-field-blocknodenews-releasefield-content-topics"> <h2>Topics</h2> <div class="field field--name-field-content-topics field--type-entity-reference field--label-visually_hidden"> <div class="field__label visually-hidden">Topics</div> <div class="field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/3341" hreflang="en">Department of Astronomy and Physics; College of Science; AU Mic b</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/271" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> Thu, 16 Jul 2020 09:00:00 +0000 John Hollis 7491 at