Rooya is originally from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and is a graduate fellow in the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative Program, pursuing an MPA in international development. Rooya graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in the Department of Politics and received the Lyman H. Atwater Prize for the best thesis on a topic of political science for her senior thesis, "The Power of Getting Perspective: A Study of Point of View and Narrative on Attitudes and Behavior towards Refugees." Rooya was also a 2022 Rhodes Scholarship Finalist. Rooya worked as a research assistant for Professor Andrew Reynolds and completed summer internships with Hunger Free Colorado as a 2019 John C. Bogle Fellow, with the World Wildlife Fund as a 2021 Princeton RISE fellow, and interned with the federal government. Her first SINSI rotation was at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration in the Office of Assistance for East, South, and Central Asia. Outside of politics, she is passionate about hiking, swimming, reading science fiction, and writing poetry.