Rehma Asghar Represents NJIT's College of Architecture and Design

Rehma Asghar, of Lawrenceville, graduated this week from New Jersey Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture and Design. She was chosen to represent her college as a gonfalon carrier in the 102nd commencement ceremony.

Major: Architecture

Hometown: Lawrenceville

Next up: Working as an intern at the New York architecture firm Perkins Eastman, where she is currently employed, while pursuing a master’s degree in Architecture at NJIT

Asghar started college as an economics and information technology major at Rutgers University, preparing for a career in finance, until she realized one day that “it wasn’t quite for me.”

“It sounds lofty, but I’ve always been struck by the impact architecture has on so many aspects of society: economics, psychology, sociology. Ideally, I’d like to find a way to apply it toward urban design, integrating my economics background, to make sustainable systems for communities, such as efficient, cost-effective housing. I’m also really interested in the psychology of spaces, in how people feel and react to their surroundings. So far at Perkins Eastman, I’ve mostly focused on higher education projects, in countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Working in this area has allowed me to explore the potential for the humanizing of architectural spaces to elicit more effective educational environments that encourage students’ desire to work and study.”