Michelle Vassilev

Michelle Vassilev graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University in 2024 with a B.A. in English and minors in Public Health and Journalism. She was accepted into the honors societies Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Nu and was also part of the English Honors Program. While in college, Michelle interned in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, assisting with cases on disability rights. Michelle also worked as a legal research assistant at Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, where she helped with projects on the use of DNA in policing and researched algorithmic discrimination in the healthcare sphere.

Passionate about journalism in addition to the law, Michelle served as the editor in chief of The Hoya, Georgetown University’s newspaper of record. She further developed her knowledge of the media industry as the newsdesk intern at BBC News, where she helped the team with coverage of international news and the leadup to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Michelle was named twice as a finalist in the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Washington, D.C. Pro Chapter’s Dateline Awards.

At the end of her senior year, Michelle won a Fulbright award to teach English in Spain. She spent her year before law school teaching at a Spanish high school, running the school’s Model United Nations Program, engaging in cultural exchange, and improving her Spanish. Michelle is also fluent in Bulgarian. Michelle hopes to examine the international issues she’s encountered through her civil rights work, journalism, and life abroad from a legal perspective. In her free time, she enjoys running, playing the cello, and traveling to new destinations.