Hilal Şahin is an international relations and politics undergraduate at Ankara Medipol University, with prior EU-focused training at Yeditepe University. Her research centers on security and geopolitics, with an emphasis on the Indo-Pacific/Asia-Pacific and Russia. She will join AVİM (Center for Eurasian Studies) as an intern in March and is set to undertake a NATO internship in Portugal in summer 2026, aiming to pursue a career in security and intelligence studies.