'I used machine learning to analyze factors that impact voter turnout'

Fatima Al-Sammak: Government & Operations Research and Engineering

5/15/2025

Fatima Al-Sammak

Government & Operations Research and Engineering
Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

What was your favorite class and why?

One of the best classes I've taken at Cornell is GOVT 3281: Constitutional Politics, with Professor Dawn Chutkow. Each week we explored Supreme Court cases that provide the basis for how our government functions today, which was a new and unique lens through which to view our political system. Also, Professor Chutkow's lecturing style is so engaging that even though it was a large lecture with more than 200 students, it felt like we were sitting in a small seminar, having one on one discussions with her about constitutional law.

What is your main extracurricular activity and why is it important to you?

My longest and most meaningful involvement in an extracurricular activity on campus was being a part of the project team Hack4Impact. I joined the team because I connected deeply with its mission to work with nonprofit organizations to develop software tools to address community needs. This was a unique opportunity to unite my interests in engineering and social sciences, as many of the projects we worked on engaged with political or social issues. I helped design a tool to aid in the resettlement of displaced people worldwide, and I was the project manager for a project to improve the accessibility of data on environmental regulation violations across the country. Then, last year, I had the privilege of codirecting the full team, where I oversaw initiatives to help our team grow both internally and externally, and I got to engage with several of our software projects simultaneously.

What have you accomplished as a Cornell student that you are most proud of?

I am graduating from Cornell with dual bachelor's degrees in government and operations research & engineering (ORIE), which has been a massive, five year undertaking. It has been an incredible interdisciplinary journey, an opportunity to study mathematical ideas with a human lens and politics with a more formal theoretical spin. Beyond giving me a unique perspective on both fields, my degrees enabled me to build the technical skills necessary to work on projects at the intersection of my interests. I used machine learning to analyze factors that impact voter turnout, and I studied trends in political language in a collection of hundreds of news articles by using text as data. I walk away from Cornell determined to seek opportunities that will allow me to build on the knowledge I have gained here in both operations research and political science.

How have your beliefs or perspectives changed since you first arrived at Cornell?

I came to Cornell viewing college education as a means to an end: Sure, I would do some exploring to figure out what I want to do, but ultimately, I was here to earn a degree to get myself a stable job. I had not thought much about what I valued in a career, and I had little to say about the kind of impact I wanted to have through my work. As I have explored my interests through my courses, I have learned to appreciate learning for the sake of it, and working for the sake of producing knowledge. When I think about how I want to spend my time after I leave Cornell, I think about it through the lens of the meaning of my work, both to me and to the world.

Who or what influenced your Cornell education the most?

The faculty here truly are the best that Cornell has to offer. So many professors have influenced my journey, pushing me to produce my best work and happy to help with the many crazy projects I have taken on. Thanks to them, I have always felt seen and valued in our academic community. That being said, I would be remiss not to recognize one professor in particular: Professor David Bateman has been a great mentor to me throughout my time at Cornell, and so much of what I have accomplished in the last five years could not have happened without his support. He has always been ready with advice whenever I have felt lost in my college journey, and he has been my biggest cheerleader when I set my sights on achieving any goal. He has also been an amazing thesis advisor whose guidance over this past year has been instrumental in helping me find my voice as a researcher. I will forever be grateful for everything he has done for me.

Every year, our faculty nominate graduating Arts & Sciences students to be featured as part of our Extraordinary Journeys series.Read more about the Class of 2025.