Leadership

Cindy Wang is a 2L from Queens, New York. Before coming to law school, she was an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in New York City. She spent her 1L summer interning at the Greater Boston Legal Services Asian Outreach Unit. She is passionate about creating equitable education opportunities for immigrant students.

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Julia (she/ her) is a 2L at Harvard Law School committed to public interest. Before law school, she worked at several immigrants’ rights and workers’ rights nonprofits including supporting class action litigation on behalf of immigrant families who were separated at the southern border with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, coordinating a pro-se clinic on behalf of low-income workers in the D.C. area with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and helping immigrants in the Boston area secure affirmative relief with Catholic Charities. She interned her 1L summer with the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee. During 2L, she will participate in the Family Justice Clinic and the Crimmigration Clinic. 

I’m a 2L from the DC area hoping to work broadly in the civil rights and democracy space. Along with Andrew and Julia, I’m running the CES program. I’ll be working to facilitate client engagement opportunities and other chances to support folks in need of immigration legal assistance. 

Usman is a 2L who graduated from New York University Abu Dhabi with a B.A in Social Research and Public Policy in 2017. Since then he has worked as a researcher, consultant, advocacy officer, teacher, editor (video and written advocacy material), and amateur filmmaker. In his free time he loves listening to music, watching the Pakistani cricket team disappoint him, and reading non-fiction.

Hi y’all! I am a 2L from Raleigh, North Carolina, where my parents settled after immigrating to the US from India. After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in 2021 (go Heels!) and before starting law school, I worked as a Director’s Financial Analyst at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for two years. Though my primary career interests are in administrative law and litigation regarding matters of economic justice, I have always been interested in immigration issues. I joined HIP to explore providing pro-bono immigration legal services in the future, and I now serve as director of Harvard’s chapter of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). My job is to coordinate case work and other projects between pro-bono coordinators at the national IRAP organization and our local IRAP members.

Joe is a 2L from Denver, Colorado. This year’s Social Chair, Joe is looking forward to connecting members of the HIP community with each other. He is also a member of the Legal Aid Bureau and a volunteer mentor for high school students with Minds Matter Boston. He jumps at every opportunity to get outside to hike, bike, camp, or hang out with other people’s dogs (such as Max, pictured). 

I am a 2L from Maryland who is interested in civil rights and human rights litigation. My job this year is to raise as much money for HIP as possible so that we can do some great work and have fun events.

I am a 2L from Arizona interested in immigration law, and I spent my 1L year on the HIP policy team. This year, I’ll be helping to schedule fun and useful HIP events.

I am a 2L from the DC area who is interested in practicing immigration law in the non-profit sector. My job this year is to keep you all up-to-date on all things HIP, and to share what we do via social media.

Eleni Bakst is a Clinical Instructor in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program. She supervises and trains students in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and in the Crimmigration Clinic on appellate and affirmative litigation, as well as direct representation matters. She also serves as the supervising attorney for the HLS Immigration Project (HIP), a student-practice organization focused on immigration-related community engagement efforts and advocacy. She was previously a Managing Attorney at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, where she managed the Maryland universal representation team and provided direct representation for detained immigrants at the immigration courts, Board of Immigration Appeals, and federal circuit courts. Prior to this, she was an Assistant Clinical Professor at Seton Hall Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights/International Human Rights Clinic and an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Human Rights First. She holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a B.A. in International Studies from American University.