Mohamed Fahkry, an undergraduate architecture student in his fourth year at Portland State University, has received the 2019 Hatfield Architectural Award from the Architecture Foundation of Oregon. He shares this honor with Zachary Sherrod, a student at University of Oregon.
“Mohamed aspires to create architecture that represents the communities he is rooted to and have shaped him, including NE Portland and Senegal, where he spent a majority of his childhood,” the AFO’s announcement states. “He is passionate about finding ‘new and innovative approaches to build self-sustainable communities where members of all ages would be able to strive, learn, and grow to become productive, engaged, and successful members of society.’ He is engaged in several volunteer organizations including the PSU Student Sustainability Center, Oregon Food Bank, Solve Oregon and Portland Adventist Community Services.”
“It is an honor for me to receive the Hatfield Architectural Award,” Fahkry said. “This award means a lot, but I first want to say thank you to the amazing and excellent professors at PSU School of Architecture who have guided me and helped me every step of the way from my first studio to the last one. I’m grateful for their wonderful commitment to my education both in and out of the classroom, and it is something I never took for granted. I share this award with all my architecture classmates and peers who have accepted me as I am since day one.”
“I’m thankful for this wonderful opportunity, and I will use this scholarship as a reminder every day to keep striving and never give up, and to always keep working with the communities who have shaped my vision of the world.”
After graduation, Fahkry plans to travel and volunteer with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) abroad program, and help communities in need.
In honor of the late senator’s own interest in architectural design and commitment to service, AFO established the Senator Mark O. Hatfield Architectural Award in 1998 to annually recognize an Oregon architecture student for their design promise and community service. Since 2015, the award has gone to PSU architecture students each year it has been offered (Lisa Patterson, 2018; Willy Chandler, 2017; Genevieve Wasser and Matthew Rusnac, 2015).
The 2019 awardees will be recognized at the Hatfield Luncheon on April 3.
Learn more about the AFO's Hatfield Architectural Award.