Aasha Shaik is a rising third-year undergraduate at Rutgers University, in the Honors College and Douglass Residential College. She is majoring in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies. After her sophomore year of high school, Aasha began working at the United Nations for gender equity, as a Girl Advocate of the UN NGO Working Group on Girls and for AAUW. Her passion for gender equity and social/political activism stems from a year she spent living in India, and the realities that she has been forced to confront since her time there and since returning to the United States. As a Girl Advocate, Aasha organized and moderated large-scale UN events, wrote and performed the theme song for the International Day of the Girl – Girls Speak Out, researched and wrote policy recommendations, and held meetings lobbying UN policy makers, including Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.

On campus, Aasha has continued pursuing her interests as a captain of the Rutgers Mock Trial team, President of Rutgers Petey Greene which brings volunteers into prisons to tutor people who are incarcerated, Vice President of the Rutgers Women’s Political Caucus, Student Coordinator of RU Voting through the Eagleton Institute of Politics which increases student civic engagement and voter registration/turnout, Editor-in-Chief of Rutgers Odyssey, the Resident Assistant (RA) for 50 first-year Douglass women in the Honors College, and Aresty Research Assistant for the “Informed Consent Project,” exploring the politics and laws surrounding abortion.

She worked at Microsoft as a Civic Tech Fellow after her first year of college to explore how the private sector can be a partner in promoting equality, and is a national Young People For (YP4) Fellow. This summer, Aasha did intensive language study and cultural immersion in Amman, Jordan on a U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarship. Upon her return, she will be studying abroad for her junior year at Sciences Po in Menton, France, which centers around Middle Eastern studies. In her free time, Aasha enjoys singing, dance, hiking, and playing with her dog, Oreo. After graduating in May 2020, Aasha plans to pursue joint law and master in public policy degrees, and aspires to a career in domestic public policy or international diplomacy and human rights – to continue promoting equity for all.