About Lawson

Lawson L. Hardrick-Cervantes III (he/him), a.k.a. Lawson Hardrick III, was raised in one of the most economically depressed and homogeneous areas in the country – Imperial Valley. Identifying as Black, Chicano, and queer, he found it challenging to find a sense of community. Following his father's incarceration, Lawson not only struggled to finish high school but was unsuccessful in his first attempt at community college. Throughout this time, Lawson gained work experience in several fields, including at a restaurant, as a bank teller, and also as an employee at Apple, where he discovered another passion besides education – technology.

Becoming a student leader in student government organizations helped him realize he wasn’t the only student facing barriers, which allowed him to remain academically persistent. Lawson has spent four years serving students, advocating and educating them on their rights, and is excited to be entering his fifth year in a student government organization. Lawson loves to play video games, geek out about Apple’s newest product releases, and search for hole-in-the-wall cafés in San Diego.

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Educational Journey

Lawson graduated from San Diego State in Imperial Valley with a double degree in psychology and public administration, with a minor in linguistics. To build upon his experiences to continue serving students meaningfully, Lawson chose to enroll in SDSU's Postsecondary Educational Leadership and Student Affairs program. Following graduation, Lawson plans to become a community change agent, working to overcome barriers and improve the quality of life of the communities he will continue to serve.​

​He plans to enroll in a Learning Design and Technology graduate program and/or a doctoral program in higher education or educational technology. His ultimate goal is to become a professor that can provide programs to assist marginalized students’ success throughout their academic journeys and expose them to high-impact practices.

Research Interests

Lawson naturally began to question educational institutions when he realized that his nieces and nephews’ schools in San Diego County were much nicer than the ones he attended in Imperial Valley. As an undergraduate, Lawson’s research interrogated whether participants’ spoken statements appeared to be more credible based on the speakers’ accents.

​Lawson’s current interests lie in the student experiences of multi-racial and multi-ethnic students, whose needs often go overlooked and whose identities do not usually fit in a single ‘box.’ Additionally, he is fascinated by distance learning (online education) because of the abrupt shift the COVID-19 pandemic caused. He would like to interrogate ways to make distance learning pedagogy more effective and engaging for students due to the flexibility and accessibility it can provide for student success.
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