Driven to give: How one student’s experience sparked a family legacy
From the soccer field to the engineering lab, Emma Hawley (CWR ’17; GRS ’18, mechanical engineering) fully embraced the Case Western Reserve University student experience.
She joined a research lab as a first-year student and, by the following year, had already contributed as a co-author to a scientific paper. She formed close friendships playing on the Spartan women’s soccer team, took every opportunity for mentorship and hands-on learning, and when she graduated with her bachelor’s, she earned the Biomedical Engineering Researcher Award.
Emma’s family watched her CWRU journey from the beginning, and seeing her transformative experience firsthand inspired her uncle, John Hawley, to establish a scholarship fund.
For John, the scholarship represents an opportunity to create access, eliminate financial barriers and inspire the next generation of CWRU students to pursue their dreams—just as his niece did. And as a retired lawyer with 20 years of experience on a school board, he is well aware of the financial challenges students face.
"I’ve always been a strong advocate for undergraduate education and have sought to help students avoid large amounts of debt," John Hawley said. "I wanted to do something to honor Emma’s outstanding time here.”
John often visited campus during Emma’s years as a student and became fond of both CWRU and Cleveland. He enjoyed exploring University Circle and seeing Emma’s favorite spots in the neighborhood, from Cleveland Museum of Art to Mitchell’s Ice Cream.
"We all came to love Cleveland and truly enjoyed our time at Case Western Reserve,” he said. “Our family has very positive feelings when we visit.”
Emma echoed those feelings, reflecting on the supportive community, the strong relationships she built with both professors and classmates, and the numerous opportunities for practical learning and professional growth.
"People genuinely care about one another,” she said, “and the relationships you develop here are both lasting and meaningful.”
Today, Emma is an intellectual property associate at the law firm Eversheds Sutherland in San Diego. While it may seem like a far cry from her studies at CWRU, it was an engineering design class taken in her senior year that sparked Emma’s interest in patent law and proved pivotal in the double alumna’s career path.
She credits her Case Western Reserve education, particularly its interdisciplinary approach and focus on problem-solving, with preparing her for a legal career utilizing her technical background.
"I get to use my engineering degree every day,” she said. “It's a very versatile degree because you're really learning the concepts, but you're also solving problems and learning how to approach them."
Now, thanks to her uncle’s generosity, future CWRU students will have the same opportunity to explore their interests and forge their own paths.
