Zaakirah Rahman is a research assistant at CCRC, where she assists with a project pertaining to climate change and its implications for workforce training in community colleges. She is a first-year master’s student in the Education Policy program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Rahman completed her undergraduate degree in spring 2023 at the City College of New York, where she majored in English, concentrated in education, and minored in sociology.
Prior to CCRC, Rahman worked as an intern/student mentor with the NYCDOE’s DREAM program, which is geared towards providing low-income 7th graders with guidance and prep for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). She also worked as a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility intern with the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), where she gained experience in the inner workings of closing equity gaps in education on a federal level. Rahman’s research interests are the transition to postsecondary education, advising and student support, and the role of higher ed for immigrant & first-generation students.