Hashim Hassan grew up in a small village in western Sudan until the country's civil war displaced his family. He graduated from high school in Khartoum, and began his studies in computer science at the university level. Civil unrest led Hashim to move to Egypt where he taught English and worked in the field of human rights. He immigrated to the U.S. in 2005 and settled in California. There, he restarted his studies at a community college, worked as an Arabic-English translator, and taught Arabic. He joined CCNY in 2007 as a transfer student, with a double major in international studies and political science, and a minor in French. In the U.S., Hashim has delivered a number of presentations on the human-rights situation in Sudan, and in Darfur in particular. He is actively engaged in public service and hopes to dedicate his career to helping and inspiring the underprivileged in the U.S. and around the world.