Summer Fellowship 2021
This summer, GenHR welcomed some really enthusiastic and self-motivated college students into its newly renamed and restructured Summer Fellowship Program. This program consists of individuals from different parts of the world who have extensive knowledge and experience in human rights and provides them with support, and skills development training to unlock their full potential and create positive change in society. The program teaches Fellows to develop a holistic understanding of human rights and other related concepts such as peace, justice, education and so much more. It will provide the Fellows with opportunities to work on their research skills, build an understanding of human rights from different perspectives, and work with some notable scholars and human rights activists from all across the globe.
Meet Our Fellows
I am extremely thrilled to introduce 4 of GenHR fellows for the Summer 2021 to you all. The Fellows have diverse backgrounds and perspectives which will enrich their collaboration and experience with Generation Human Rights all the more.
Vanshika Arya
I would love to start by introducing myself as one of the Fellows in the GenHR Summer Fellowship 2021 cohort. My name is Vanshika Arya. I am from Delhi, India. Currently, I am pursuing a bachelor's degree in Political Science with a minor in Journalism at the University of Delhi. I am also volunteering as an ambassador and a peace friend at the London Institute of Peace Research. I am also learning Spanish at Instituto Cervantes, Embassy of Spain. I am extremely passionate about languages and different cultures. I have always been a huge fan of Latin music and hence I started learning Spanish. I have also learned some basic level French. I recently completed an online course‒ International Women’s Health and Human Rights taught by Dr. Anne Firth Murray‒ at Stanford University.
I feel strongly about human rights, peace, conflict resolution and women’s empowerment. I am experienced in content writing, content creation and research. Besides that, I am extremely passionate about travel and photography. I have a travel blog that goes by the name Her Travel Instincts. Don’t forget to take a look at it! ;)
I am thrilled to introduce the 3 other extremely talented, assiduous and hard-working Fellows in the Summer Fellowship 2021 cohort.
Andrea Ayala
Andrea Ayala is from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. She recently accomplished her bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages with a minor in Human Rights at the University of Puerto Rico. She will be furthering her studies at Arizona State University, concentrating in Social Justice and Human Rights. She is keen on creating her own nonprofit organization one day or becoming a human rights lawyer to guarantee the enjoyment of human rights at the international level, focusing on access to education.
Alyssa Mills
Another one of our zealous fellows is Alyssa Mills. She is a writer and researcher from Dallas, Texas. She has just completed her associate's degree and will be attending the University of Glasgow in the fall to study International Relations and Social and Public Policy. She has previously competed at the state and national levels in speech and debate, mock trial, and mock legislature, earning numerous awards as well as recognition as a Judicial Officer in Texas Youth and Government, a spot in the top 32 teams for the International Public Policy Forum competition, and placement at the Conference of National Affairs in both 2020 and 2021. Alyssa has a passion for advancing human rights through the analysis and creation of responsible public policy and is pursuing a career to review and shape policy at a leading human rights NGO.
Szymon Jezewski
Szymon is from Poland, but has been living in the UK for the past three years. He is currently completing his final year of a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at King’s College London. Among many of his academic interests, prevalent are human rights, particularly - the interrelation between civil and political rights, erosion of democracy and the rule of law standards in Eastern Europe and the resultant human rights violations, and LGBTQ+ rights. Besides International relations and Human Rights, he is also passionate about literature, film and classical music.
OUR PROJECTS
The Summer 2021 Fellows focused on 3 major projects- the Aftermath Peace Project, the Water Curriculum, and the unMASKing: Pandemic Curriculum.
The Aftermath Peace Project aimed to interview some youth from conflict and post-conflict settings about their personal experiences, and how they developed their world views regarding peace after experiencing war or conflict in their country and the impact it created. It aims to develop a common understanding about peace and war from unique perspectives. This project is based on the book, Imagine: Reflections on Peace.
Imagine: Reflections on Peace explores the conditions and consequences of peace in post conflict societies— Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Colombia. Leading photographers and journalists of war returned to those countries where they first reported during conflict. Eyewitnesses, lawyers, negotiators and survivors who lived through war and its aftermath add their voices to the project. All together they examine what lessons can be learned from the peace that was brokered in these nations and how peace has endured over time.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left us all trapped in our masks but it has also exposed or “unmasked” so many human rights violations taking place all across the globe. Our free and open-sourced project, unMASKing: The Pandemic Curriculum, is a way to bring thousands of people, who are experiencing and witnessing these issues together to assess the domestic as well as global impacts and deal with these issues together. The pandemic curriculum is more than just an academic lesson; it aims to inspect the impact and share personal experiences.
