Academic Background:

I’ve always been an incredibly academic person, however, it wasn’t until my summer studying a class titled “War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice,” at Harvard Summer School that I fell in love with the field of human rights. I knew instantly I wanted to further my education to study international politics and make a difference for the most vulnerable peoples of the world. Specifically, it was studying the Rohingya refugee crisis that lit my passion for human, and more specifically refugee rights. Since graduating high school in 2020, I have been studying abroad at Aberystwyth University in Wales, United Kingdom. My degree is in Security, Intelligence, and Security, but with a hyper curated schedule, I have intensely focused on the fields of refugee and women's rights, the American far right, and international politics generally.  

Moving abroad shattered my world view, then it allowed me to rebuild it on the principles I actually believe in: human rights, democracy, justice. All things I believe the US has struggled with for my entire life. It’s for this reason that I feel I owe it to my younger self and my community that I become as educated as possible and use that tool to help as many people in need. As Nelson Mandela has famously said, “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Education has freed me from this ideology I grew up around, and the goal of all my passions is to use it to encourage others to change, for themselves and for their community alike.  

Having spent most of my life in academia, I have limited professional experience in the field of human rights. This has not stopped me, however, from being an active voice in international politics and in my communities. Enthralling myself in my education, I have become a very passionate student, enrolling in refugee simulation courses and pouring myself into my work. As a lifelong honors student, this is something I’m very proud of. As such, I have decided to make myself a professional. While spending hours researching for my dissertation, I have also taken on individual projects. In addition to my passion for human rights and international politics, I am a poet. I believe poetry can be a powerful tool for healing trauma and navigating life. As such, I am in the very final stages of publishing my first poetry book. Titled, “Where the Spirit Meets the Bone,” I write about the human experience including everything from heartbreak, grief, trauma, with a few poems centered around community and human rights.