Hajira Fuad '13

Hajira Fuad graduated from Milwaukee Montessori School in 2013 and went on to the University School of Milwaukee where she graduated in 2017. In 2021, Hajira graduated from Wellesley College and obtained her degree with honors in Political Science and German Studies. Humble and diligent, Hajira’s hard work has earned her several rewards including the Regeneron Science Talent Search Scholar award and the Barnette-Miller Foundation Prize for Best Essay in International Relations.

The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition and Hajira was one of 300 young scholars selected as a winner from a competition of more than 1,700 nationwide. Hajira’s independent research project entitled “Computational Discovery of Pharmacological Chaperones to Rectify Protein Misfolding Using a Novel Support Vector Machine Classifier” offered a unique algorithm to fuel drug research and examine potential cures for common diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, and Parkinson’s. In an interview with the USM school paper in 2017, Hajira shared that she submitted her project without the knowledge or assistance from anyone at USM or her parents! “When they found out that I was named a semi-finalist, they were pretty shocked and excited. They were wondering what I was spending so much time working on!” The awards continued during her collegiate career where Hajira received the Barnette-Miller Foundation Prize for Best Essay in International Relations by the Wellesley College Political Science Department.

When asked about how MMS impacted her studies, Hajira believes MMS taught her "that what you put into your studies is what you get out of it, and that persistent effort, focus, and hard work pays off." Hajira says she is thankful for the connections she had with her MMS teachers and appreciates how they always pushed her to submit the highest quality of work. Hajira is set to graduate from New England Law in Boston in 2026 and was the recipient of the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Full Tuition Merit Scholarship.