Rania Hassan poses with Governor Roy Cooper. Hassan graduated from Riverside in 2015 and now works as a policy assistant for Cooper.
Hassan (’15) thought she wanted to be an engineer. Now, she works as a policy assistant in Governor Roy Cooper’s Durham office.
Hassan was part of the PLTW Program at Riverside and went to NC State to pursue environmental engineering.
“I think I slowly started to realize that there’s a lot of technology that exists to help the environment but you have to actually get people to use it,” said Hassan. “So I started to really be interested in environmental politics.”
Hassan’s job involves handling the policy director’s schedule, coordinating meetings for the team, researching policy, and writing policy briefs and weekly updates for Cooper.
“My job is to help the policy advisors in any way they ask,” said Hassan. “You kind of don’t really know what your day is going to be like and I kind of like that lack of structure.”
Hassan recently joined the clean energy team where she took up a similar role helping in any capacity she can.
One of the people who had the biggest impact on Hassan’s Riverside experience was English teacher Matt Smith.
“I had him for Public Speaking,” said Hassan. “He was always loving and friendly and supportive. I still keep in contact with him today.”
Hassan advises high school students to enjoy this time of their lives.
“I still look back at high school pretty fondly, which I don’t think too many people do,” said Hassan. “In high school, you’re so stressed about getting into college and you’re working hard, but [don’t] forget to enjoy those moments.”
