This summer, CAIR-SFBA was blessed to host several students who worked with our team to provide services, expand outreach, and support various efforts, increasing our capacity significantly.
Saima Ali – Law Clerk
Saima is a rising second-year law student from the UC Hastings, College of the Law. After graduating with a B.A. in Political Science/International Affairs from University of California, Riverside, she worked with Neighborhood Legal Services at the Pomona Courthouse and later for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office’s Victims Assistance Program. During her first year of law school, she volunteered with the General Advocacy Assistance Program located in and serving the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. After having experienced discrimination, and having witnessed the marginalization that racism and prejudice causes, she decided to work with CAIR-SFBA. She hopes to help stop the spread of Islamophobia, and to help the American Muslim community overcome the adverse effects of racism and prejudice it faces today.
Sam Karimzadeh – Law Clerk
Sam is a rising third-year law student at the Santa Clara University School of Law. Before coming to CAIR-SFBA, Sam worked with Bay Area Legal Aid as a student counselor at the George and Katherine Alexander Community Law Center’s Workers Rights Project, and as a research assistant for the Northern California Innocence Project. Sam earned his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he was published in the UCLA Undergraduate Law Journal. He has also worked as a Program Assistant at Muslim Advocates, was an intern with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, and was an outreach organizer for the Los Angeles Homeless Services Coalition. After graduating, Sam looks forward to practicing law to advance social justice and equality.
Nathaniel Balk – Government Relations Intern
Nathaniel is a senior at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He is majoring in Politics and Religious Studies and joined CAIR-SFBA as a government relations intern. During the fall of 2014, Nate lived in Morocco and studied the Arabic language at Al-Akhawayn University. Originally from Everett, Washington, this was Nate’s first time in the Bay Area and he was excited to engage with and mobilize the local Muslim community around civic engagement campaigns.
Shajia Abidi – Media Intern
Shajia is a senior at San Francisco State University majoring in Journalism and minoring in Middle East and Islamic Studies. Passionate about justice, peace, interfaith dialogue, and mutual understanding, she joined CAIR as a summer media intern.