Two Social Science students who "exemplify civility” awarded the Lynch Family Promoting Civility Scholarships
January 9, 2025 - Karessa Weir
In Spring 2023, MSU Political Science student Jerome Hamilton Jr. was selected to speak at a College of Social Science scholarship brunch alongside an alumni couple who were announcing a new scholarship promoting civility.
The importance of treating others with respect has long been a personal moral of Hamilton’s, so when he heard Jon and Tina Lynch explain the reasons behind the creation of the Lynch Family Promoting Civility Scholarship fund, he knew he had to put his hat in.
“The Lynchs inspired me to want to become that civility champion,” said Hamilton, now a senior double majoring in PLS Pre-Law and Fisheries and Wildlife. “As a political science major, I see it all the time – the importance that civility holds in the current political environment in American and just how necessary it is for having a functioning society.”
Hamilton, and Economics major Sumaiya Imad, were recently named the 2024 recipients of the Jon & Tina Lynch Family Promoting Civility Scholarship.
Imad, a sophomore who is minoring in Law, Justice and Public Policy, heard about the scholarship through the Social Science Scholars program and its director, Dr. John Waller.
“My experience with the Social Scholars program as a whole has been as a champion of civility and advocacy,” Imad said. “I felt even as my job as residential assistant during this election year that civility was a big, big part of my goals last semester. So I thought my experience aligned well with the scholarship.”
Dr. Waller advised Imad to apply, saying that both students show civility in their academic and personal lives.
“Sumaiya exemplifies civility by her ethical, respectful, and compassionate approach to life. As a high school student, she began working alongside the victims of human trafficking to enable them to escape cycles of poverty. At the same time, she was Research and Innovation Officer of the national organization Youth Policy Forum in Bangladesh and contributed to a reform matrix on education and employment. Since arriving at MSU, Sumaiya has continued her Bangladesh nonprofit work while also devoting many hours to MSU's Women’s Leadership Institute and research on how to ensure that people with lived experience of mental illness play a far more central role in how psychoses are studied. The breadth of Sumaiya’s commitments speaks to the strong moral sense and the drive to make positive change which this award rightly celebrates,” Waller said.
“Jerome has had a spectacular undergraduate career and will go on to become one of the nation’s foremost environmental policymakers. Of course, environmental protection has become a divisive political issue; but it is in this context that Jerome will flourish due to his intellectual and personal qualities. For Jerome already knows how to appeal to people of diverse persuasions in showing the importance of sustainability and combatting climate change, and he has the charm, charisma, and decency to win the trust and cooperation of those who might initially disagree with him,” Waller said.
Hamilton will graduate this spring and plans to find a job in environmental policy that will help him decide his future education. Ultimately, Hamilton, who grew up in Baltimore, plans to earn a master’s degree in public policy and work in environmental and natural resources policy.
“Environmental policy is something I’ve been passionate about for a long, long time, especially considering climate change challenges, sustainability challenges. I really hope to hit the ground running,” he said.
Imad, who is an international student from Bangladesh, wants to go into human rights law. She has already created a non-profit where she works with victims of human trafficking in her home country but hopes by going to law school and becoming a human rights lawyer, she can do even more for abused women.
"I want to help them restore their dignity and humanity after being sold into brothels and trafficked across borders at such a vulnerable age," she said.
The Jon & Tina Lynch Family Promoting Civility Scholarship was created in 2023 by two College of Social Science alumni looking for a way to give back to their university. They also wanted the scholarship to encourage young leaders to bring a tone of kindness and civility back into politics and government. The Lynchs, of Midland, Mich., met at MSU and all four of their children are also alumni.
“This endowment aims to support research, education, training, or community engagement activities that promote and emphasize civility in public discourse by helping undergraduate students in the college develop the courage to take responsibility for inventing the future. The goal being to amplify their effectiveness by promoting and engaging in civil discourse on important and sometimes divisive topics,” Jon Lynch said.
MSU PLS major Jerome Hamilton speaks at the College of Social Science scholarship brunch in
Spring 2023 which featured the announcement of the Lynch Family Promoting Civility Scholarship. Photo by Jackie Belden Hawthorne, College of Social Science.