Leadership
Leadership is at the core of who I am.
I don’t just sit in meetings. I move people.
I’ve built my life around turning student voices into action. For me, leadership isn’t about titles, it’s about momentum: uniting communities, making decisions when it counts, and driving change that lasts beyond the a semester.
01.
School of Engineering Rep, Rutgers Student Assembly
Serving as the School of Engineering Representative in Rutgers’ Student Assembly meant more than just holding a seat, it was about shaking up how student government delivers for 40,000+ undergrads. I pushed to weave AI and entrepreneurship into the engineering experience, making sure students weren’t just learning theory but building future-facing skills. I went head-to-head in referendum debates, fighting for funding structures that actually serve students and their organizations, and worked with administrators to cut red tape and amplify engineering voices in real decisions. I also championed practical wins, like introducing dining hall technology to track and reduce food waste, proving student government can innovate, not just legislate. For me, leadership here was about execution: taking bold ideas and translating them into systems that outlast any single term.
01.
Rutgers Law School Tech + Policy Fellow
At Rutgers Law School, I turned policy into a builder’s playground. I worked on equity issues for South Asian Muslims and interfaith communities in South Asia, pushing conversations on civil rights and representation. At the same time, I built tech that made the law school’s policy work faster and smarter, automating research, streamlining media tracking, and prototyping tools for South Asian public policy projects. It was about proving that you can code your way into impact, using engineering skills to make the policy world run like a startup: leaner, sharper, and built to scale.
01.
MARK Leadership Conference Team
The MARK Leadership Conference isn’t just big, it’s the largest student-run leadership conference in the country. I wasn’t just in the room, I was on the team that made it happen. From planning logistics to curating experiences that brought together thousands of students, speakers, and changemakers, I helped turn ideas into an unforgettable event. And it paid off, not only in the impact we created, but in being recognized and rewarded as the "Outstanding New Student Leader" out of 14,000 other freshmen. For me, it wasn’t about running a conference, it was about proving I could operate at scale, building, leading, and executing on something massive alongside an incredible team.
02.
Technology Lead | Ali for Jersey City Mayoral Campaign
I led the entire tech operation for Mussab Ali’s 2025 mayoral campaign, running everything from 3M+ site visitors and 15K+ voter registrations to data pipelines that scraped Reddit and local forums for sentiment analysis and opposition research. I designed and managed the digital infrastructure that powered outreach, fundraising, and volunteer coordination, making sure the campaign’s message didn’t just reach people but moved them to act. My role wasn’t about keeping the lights on, it was about turning technology into a competitive edge in one of New Jersey’s biggest local races.
01.
Citizens, Institutions, and the Public
Being part of President Holloway’s Citizens, Institutions, and the Public seminar was like being dropped into a think‑tank at war with complacency. This wasn’t the usual freshman class, it was a backstage pass to national leadership. We interviewed thinkers and doers, from the NAACP’s Sherrilyn Ifill to Elizabeth Alexander of the Mellon Foundation, crashing across the binary of theory and reality, politics and justice. More than just listening, I architected policies that Rutgers actually adopted to improve student life. I also launched RU Volunteering, a platform that hooks students up with service opportunities that earn real perks—like degree credits or tuition discounts. It wasn’t about ticking boxes; it was about showing how disciplined ideas can spark institutional change.
03.
2x Student Body President, Class President
Think CEO of a high school startup with 2,000+ “shareholders.” For three out of four years, I was Student Body President, running budgets, negotiating with admin, and scaling events that pulled in the entire school. I wasn’t just moving paper, I was shipping culture: from tech-driven initiatives that modernized student council operations to leading football games, pep rallies, and fundraisers that felt more like product launches than assemblies. Re-elected twice, I learned early how to build trust, rally teams, and execute big ideas under the scrutiny of a very tough board: teenagers.
03.
Vote16 JC Chair
As Chair of Vote16 Jersey City, I treated democracy like a startup, and we scaled it. I co-led the campaign that made Newark the first city in New Jersey to lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections, enfranchising thousands of young people who had never had a say in the systems that shaped them. We ran it like an early-stage venture: strategy sprints, grassroots growth, coalition building with lawmakers, and policy handoffs that turned organizing into an actual bill. I even secured buy-in at Rutgers, where our student government passed one of the first university resolutions in the nation backing Vote16, amplifying the movement statewide. The result? A first-in-state legislative win that caught national attention and set a precedent other cities are now copying. Our “product” wasn’t an app, it was power redistribution. And we proved that when you give students the vote, you don’t just change elections, you change democracy itself.
02.
Ali Leadership Institute Fellow
At the Ali Leadership Institute, I treated policy like a startup sprint. Instead of just studying leadership, I was out in the field, pitching tech-driven policy ideas face-to-face with community leaders, senators, and organizers, and actually winning buy-in. I built and tested civic tech concepts that connected students to advocacy pipelines, and I learned to sell ideas the hard way: knocking on doors, negotiating in real time, and marketing policy like a product. The fellowship sharpened me as a founder-operator in the policy space, where you don’t just talk impact, you ship it into law.
02.
CAIR Student Ambassador
As a CAIR Student Ambassador, I didn’t just represent Muslim students, I built campaigns that forced change. I launched advocacy pushes that got halal food options introduced in schools and took on broader equity issues impacting Muslim youth, from cultural inclusion to religious accommodations. I organized students like a distributed team, framed policy asks as products, and pitched them to administrators until they shipped. Every win proved that young Muslims could turn lived experience into leverage, and that when you pair activism with execution, you don’t just join the conversation, you rewrite it.
02.
High School Democrats Muslim Caucus Elected Rep
I was elected to represent Muslim students on a national stage, giving our community a seat at the table inside the High School Democrats of America. This wasn’t just a title, it was building power at scale. I organized across states, united Muslim voices from coast to coast, and injected our priorities—equity in education, civil rights, representation—directly into national youth politics. I treated the caucus like a startup: scaling chapters, aligning strategy, and turning scattered energy into a coordinated movement. The impact was real, Muslim students who had never seen themselves reflected in politics now had a national voice driving the conversation. For me, it was proof that you don’t have to wait until college or office to lead, you can start disrupting politics in high school.
02.
President, Junior State of America
As President of my JSA chapter, I basically ran a mini political startup. I scaled membership, launched debate events that pulled in record turnout, and built coalitions with other schools to push student-led legislation simulations. It wasn’t just about debate club energy, it was about running ops, managing a “board,” and proving students could organize like policymakers. I turned a small chapter into an engine for political engagement, giving dozens of students their first real taste of civic leadership.
02.
Non Profit Leadership Fellow of The Borgen Project
At The Borgen Project, I operated like a policy founder in the nonprofit space. I lobbied congressional staffers, built grassroots campaigns, and drove awareness around global poverty legislation. It was part marketing sprint, part political ops: pitching issues like a startup raising its seed round, except the ROI was measured in lives impacted. I sharpened my skills in negotiation, advocacy, and storytelling while pushing forward bills that brought global development and humanitarian aid to the national stage.
Interested yet?
Contact me to see how you can get involved.