This feature originally appeared in the Fall edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.



The desire to help teammates and other athletes began long before his time on the collegiate soccer pitch. At an early age, even before he realized what his natural curiosity would spawn into, Halil Beqaj was intrigued with the science of the body.
 
When Beqaj got sick when he was younger, he found comfort from his parents.
 
Only, for the Irvine, Calif. native, his comfort came in the form of conversations he would have with his father and the knowledge he acquired during those times. Illness was not an excuse to whine for the young Beqaj, it was a chance to learn more about himself.
 
"I was lucky in that my dad has a Ph.D. in pathology, so he studied diseases," said Beqaj, now a junior midfielder for the Golden Bears. "He would always take me into the lab with him, and whenever I was hurting or sick or something he would tell me what was going on. And in his lab, there were a lot of big machines and it was awesome.
 
"All of my curiosities he had answers to. I just absolutely loved it. I would tell him something was hurting and say 'give me the answer to it' and it made so much sense."
 
Halil's fascination and understanding with what happens to the body continues with him to this day. In fact, the molecular and cell biology major turned what began as interesting discussions and trips to the lab with his father into his academic passion.
 
Over the summer, Beqaj put his academic pursuit into action. He participated in the Radiology Research summer internship program at UC San Francisco where the lab became home, much to his pleasure. There, he worked with Professor of Radiology Dr. Sharmila Majumdar, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Alan Zhang, physical therapist Dr. Richard Souza and post-doctoral scholar Dr. Michael Samaan to get a multifaceted look into medical research.  
 
"The summer student program is one we've had for many years now – at least six of seven years. It's a very mature program," said Majumdar, who runs the program and also serves as the Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Radiology. "We basically bring in summer students all the way from high school to medical students, undergraduates, even Ph.D. students and they come to do research and individual labs.
 
"Halil's brought a lot. He's very enthusiastic, determined and detail oriented. And I think to a large extent, the condition he's working on is fairly common in athletes and so on. The other thing he's brought and will be bringing long term is the perspective for [scientific] imaging of the athlete. That's going to be very critical in the years moving forward."
 
It has been Beqaj's experience as an athlete that compelled him to focus his summer research on femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a condition that affects the hip.
 
"It was cool to learn in-depth about FAI because it was a condition that related to my former teammate Trevor Long and impacts other people I know," Beqaj said of recent graduate Long, who was a defender on Cal's squad. "I'm lucky that I don't have that hip pain, but I can ask other athletes what their symptoms are. I obviously can't diagnose anything, but it's encouraging that I can understand the symptoms. I learned a lot this summer. In eight years, hopefully, I may be operating on one of them."