Rubab Hyder, Nesha Griffin & Sharmain Siddiqui will discuss the persistence of pursuing education, mentorship, campus activism, how to use your voice in challenging situations & more.
Want to submit a question to the panel? E-mail moderator at jes@expandinglives.org
RUBAB HYDER
Rubab Hyder is pursuing a dual degree in Biology and History at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She is currently a Multicultural Advocate at University of Illinois and a summer researcher at Northwestern University, focusing on the impact of environmental carcinogens on human health and organisms. Rubab is interested in translating her activism into the medical field; advocating for better accessibility to healthcare and working towards reproductive justice beyond the West.
Rubab is a South Asian woman who believes in the abolition of prisons, the movement for Palestinian liberation, anti-capitalist practices and the destruction of militant policing. In the past year, she has worked for Planned Parenthood, showcased her performance art and written for The Daily Illini.
QUANESHA GRIFFIN
Quanesha Griffin AKA Life Coach Nesha is an author, speaker, youth advocate and life coach. At 26 years old, she just obtained her Masters in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. Author of CEO Sessions: Taking Charge of My Life & CEO of Executive Behavior Life Coaching Agency, Nesha primarily works at a nonprofit agency working with children and teens to meet their therapeutic goals. She also gives back to the community as a mentor to the youth in Chicago.
SHARMAIN SIDDIQUI
Sharmain is currently an undergraduate at Northwestern University, where she is working towards her B.S. in Environmental Science and Human Development and Psychological Services, with a concentration in diasporic feminisms.
Sharmain lives and breathes the revolution, and is involved with organizations both on and off campus that aim to create a safer and more inhabitable world for marginalized identities. She believes strongly in transformative justice and dismantling oppressive structures, and you can often find her doing work for organizations like Sexual Health and Assault Peer Education (SHAPE), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ).
Sharmain believes strongly in creating new models of community, specifically ones that abolish prisons, subvert capitalism, and disarm and dismantle the police, with the ultimate goal of creating a radically different society. She is invested in new forms of liberation and solidarity rooted within love and confrontation.