Hedaya Hassanein

Law Clerk - Summer 2025

Hedaya Hassanein is a rising senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, double majoring in Political Science and Psychology with a minor in Arabic Studies. As a Civil Rights Law Intern at CAIR-Chicago, she assists with legal research, client communications, letter drafting, and Arabic-English translation. Passionate about civil rights and immigrant justice, Hedaya hopes to pursue a career in immigration law to serve and advocate for underrepresented communities. As the daughter of Egyptian immigrants, she is deeply committed to issues of identity, representation, and access to justice. Hedaya recently studied at The American University in Cairo, where she took intensive courses in Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. She is also an active member of the Arabic Debate Team, where she uses her language skills to advocate for social and political issues affecting the Arab world. Her academic and extracurricular work focuses on amplifying the voices of marginalized individuals, particularly within the Middle Eastern and North African diaspora. Hedaya’s interests include community organizing and connecting with others through language, culture, and shared purpose.