Laila Nasher, born in Aden, Yemen and raised in Detroit, Michigan, is a senior at Harvard University studying History and Social Anthropology. A first-generation student, Laila has founded and shaped long-term institutional programming for First-Generation/Low-Income students at Harvard, impacting over 2,000 students on campus and over 10,000 across the United States. She has been recognized for her campus impact with the Spirit of Harvard college Award, and for her academic record as a three-time John Harvard Scholar. She has interned with Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkol Karman, and in the offices of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and the Michigan Democratic Majority Floor Leader, Representative Abraham Aiyash. A Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and a Truman Scholar, Laila works to bridge academia, law, policy, and organizing to create long-term legal and institutional change for disadvantaged students across the United States. She has organized bazaars, traditional market-place events, to encourage economic and educational independence for migrant women and is creating a scholarship to encourage Yemeni American girls to pursue college. She hopes to expand this scholarship to Yemeni British girls in the coming years.

As a Marshall Scholar, Laila hopes to understand how the U.K.'s education system impacts disadvantaged communities through degrees in education and migration studies. Following the scholarship, she aims to pursue legal studies in the United States to understand how to advocate for the creation of education as a civil right.