Samer Hassan

Harold Washington College student Samer Hassan was born in Venezuela, but is 100% Palestinian, and he has a deep connection to both cultures. He moved to the U.S. at age 3, attended high school, and now calls Chicago home.

Samer is a huge advocate of community college and is making the most of his HWC experience: he’s SGA president, District SGA vice chair; a member of PTK; and has a 3.9 GPA. Under his SGA leadership, HWC has developed and strengthened relationships with community groups like the Latino Policy Forum and Young Invincibles, assisted students with voter registration, and brought more attention to simplifying the FAFSA process. He does this all while working 50 hours a week in data entry.

With no family here, Samer relies on his ambition, persistence, friends and HWC resources like the Writing Lab and math tutors. He is studying political science and is intent on transferring and starting at a four-year institution in the fall of this year. If all goes well, he’ll soon be continuing his education at Stanford, American University, Columbia University, Brown or Georgetown. He eventually wants to return to Chicago to run for office.