Further 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 began studying abroad at Aberystwyth University in Wales, United Kingdom. My degree was in Security, Intelligence, and Security, but with a hyper curated schedule and research, I intensely focused on the fields of refugee rights, the American far right, and human rights.

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 of a similar realization. As Nelson Mandela has famously said, “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Education has freed me from the narrow, misinformed ideologies I grew up around, and the goal of all my passions is to use this knowledge 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. And as a lifelong honors student, this is something I’m very proud of. As such, I have decided to be the one who makes myself a professional. While spending hours researching for my dissertation, I have also taken on individual projects like this blog.

In addition to my passion for human rights and international politics, I am a poet. I believe poetry is a transformative power for healing collective trauma and navigating life. As such, in March 2023 I published my first poetry book titled, “Where the Spirit Meets the Bone,” where I write about the human experience including everything from heartbreak, grief, trauma, with a few poems centered around community and human rights.

Link to my book, “Where the Spirit Meets the Bone,” - can also be found online through Barnes and Noble, Booklead Publishing E-Books, Ebay, Target, etc.