About Nadia:
My name is Nadia Hassan, and I'm a 3rd year in the Engineering School. I'm from Richmond, VA but I lived in Michigan for over 10 years. Two fun facts about me are I'm a Bangladeshi-American, and I'm a makeup artist and a graffiti artist!
When it comes to my academic interests, I am currently the Head TA of CS 1112 taught by Professor Jim Cohoon, and I've had so much fun TAing this course for the past four semesters. I didn't have experience with CS coming into UVA, and I had initially failed my first CS exam. I didn't want to let my first failure discourage me from pursuing CS, so I saw it as an opportunity to work harder to learn CS throughout the years and build my confidence and potential in my field. I don't believe that grades define any student's success in a field, and I always encourage my friends and students I TA for to pursue their individual passions so that they also feel confident in themselves and content with what they choose. Now, I've reached a point where my TA position, my courses, and my first internship as a developer solidified my love for web application development and my goal of becoming a full-stack developer. I believe there is no limit to what I can do with my major, so I'm so excited for the opportunities in the future!
What has kept Nadia motivated:
During this pandemic, I believe that mental health is my top priority so that I can be motivated to succeed academically and personally. This time is very rare and stressful, and it impacts everyone differently. It's important to take a breath and validate my feelings and stress by reminding myself that it's okay to be feeling everything I'm feeling. I believe that giving myself breaks and reminding my friends and family to take care of themselves both physically and mentally are important, and I feel grateful for being able to reach out and connect to them more. I'm continuously inspired by my parents, Shamima Deeba and Mohammed Khaled Hassan, and my best friends Sara, Sanjidah, Maha, and Trena to be optimistic, spiritually grounded, and to lift others up during this time as well.