W&L’s Hamza Zia ’26 Awarded FAO Schwarz Fellowship

By Lily Caldwell
May 12, 2026

Washington and Lee University student Hamza Zia '26 has received a FAO Schwarz Fellowship to serve a two-year fellowship at Reading Partners, a leading nonprofit organization in New York City. Zia is an engineering major and mathematics and education studies minor from Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

The FAO Schwarz Fellowship program provides opportunities for graduating college seniors interested in social impact careers to work with organizations in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia committed to social justice and equity. In addition to the direct service and strategic project components of their fellowship, fellows engage in professional development experiences such as retreats, mentoring and networking.

"I am honored and truly grateful to both Reading Partners and the FAO Schwarz Fellowship for seeing something in my story and my work worth investing in," said Zia. "I am the first person from my entire village to pursue higher education beyond the borders of Pakistan, and it is not every day I get to see people from a background like mine end up in rooms such as this one. Everything I have done so far, and everything I continue to do, has been my refusal to accept the homogeneity of those who have historically gotten to lead and shape the future of our community."

Reading Partners is a nonprofit dedicated to helping children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results. Zia will serve as a Community Engagement Fellow, managing the organization's multi-hour corporate partnerships while simultaneously tutoring students through a structured, evidence-backed literacy curriculum.

"I was born and raised in a small, underserved village in Pakistan, and that gave me a very specific relationship with the question of who education is built for and who it quietly leaves behind," said Zia. "That very question followed me to W&L, and it is the reason I aspire to pursue a Ph.D. in science, technology, engineering math (STEM) education and eventually lead initiatives dedicated to educating and empowering marginalized youth."

Zia is thankful for the support he has received from Haley Sigler, associate professor and director of education studies, and Sarah Margalus, visiting assistant professor of education studies, and how they show up for him with consistency and generosity. Zia is particularly grateful to Eric Moffa, associate professor of education studies, for inspiring him to pursue education studies at W&L.

"Education in Professor Moffa's classroom became a site of political and ethical consequence, a place where the question of who gets access to what is answered daily, quietly and with enormous stakes," said Zia. "That reframing has shaped my research, my community work and the arc of everything I want to build in the future."

Zia is a dedicated advocate for Pakistan's transgender community and has earned multiple accolades for his work, including a Davis Projects for Peace grant in 2024, the James G. Leyburn Award for outstanding community service, the G. Holbrook Barber Scholarship, the Community Catalyst Award and the Emerging Leader of the Year Award. He is also a Youth Literacy Program intern at Rockbridge Regional Library, coordinating over 150 volunteer tutors across six schools. Zia is a Johnson Scholar and a Bonner Scholar and serves the W&L student body as a member of the Student Affairs Committee, a resident adviser, a peer tutoring coordinator, an Office of Student Engagement and Leadership ambassador and an international student mentor.

The FAO Schwarz Family Foundation was established in 1990 by the descendants of Frederick A.O. Schwarz, a German immigrant who founded the FAO Schwarz toy store in 1862. The Foundation continues its lifelong mission of bringing love and joy into children's lives by supporting nonprofit organizations committed to social impact, especially in the areas of education, the environment and the arts.

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