Amy Ostermeier Human Rights Fellowships are designed to support Macalester students who secure internships at human rights organizations. Through such opportunities, students will better understand the critical nature of human rights issues and also the challenges of human rights work and/or diplomacy. Such experiential education will augment academic training by providing a laboratory for direct student involvement in some aspect of human rights work.
Amy Ostermeier Human Rights Fellowship Recipients
2020
Diana Paz Garcia ’21 from Mexico City was a research intern with the Foreign Policy, Security and Strategy division at the Brookings Institution. She provided research support to Vanda Felbab-Brown a prominent expert on transnational organized crime, internal conflict and terrorism. This included writing briefing, memos, and reports on non-traditional transnational security issues, including drug trafficking, wildlife crime, terrorism, and illicit economies, with a focus on Latin America, and South Asia. This intern allowed Diana to follow her dreams of working with a high level DC think tank and will help her work on conflict issues in her native Mexico.
Willow Fortunoff ’21 from Montpelier Vermont interned for Alight Covid-19 Response and served as a Latin America Project Manager supporting Sister organizations to receive medical training, financial support and the distribution of health messaging in Latin America. She also conducted a needs assessment with migrant shelters in Mexico, and helped draft a proposal for shelter renovations. This included sustainable practices for a broader proposal for future funders. Willow hopes to be part of the next generation of foreign policymakers on Latin America-US relations and since her internship was selected as a 2020 Truman Scholar.
2019
Ana Gvozdic ’21 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, moved to Freiburg, Germany at the age of 15 to attend the United World College and international high school with a mission of peace and sustainable future. In 2019, she interned at the Post-Conflict Research Center, an NGO in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina dedicated to restoring a culture of peace and preventing violent conflict in the Western Balkans. This NGO works to create, implement and support unconventional and innovative approaches to peace education, post-conflict research, human rights and transitional justice. She assisted with research projects, transcription, translation, and social media coverage. She was able to also attend various conferences and events related to her work and the mission of the research center. This internship has been an opportunity to strengthen her network and post conflict work in her home country where she intends to establish her professional work and passion in a post conflict society.
Ny Ony Razafindrabe ’20 from Antananarivo, Madagascar, in high school joined the United World College where her passion for diversity and inclusion began to grow. Here she decided she wanted to work for the development of her country. This background led her to Macalester College, majoring in International Studies. In her internship she worked at the National Council of Women in Madagascar, where she researched and wrote gender profiles for different countries in East and Southern Africa; advocated and lobbied to promote gender equality in Madagascar; facilitated debates and workshops with various themes including street harassment and abortion; and worked in the fight against statelessness with a focus on women. Upon graduating from College, she wants to “create her own company and become an international consultant in the field of human rights for development.”
2018
No fellowships were awarded in 2018 as Amy’s Fund supported a Fall 2018 skype presentation to Macalester students from Ambassador Samantha Power, author, human rights advocate, Harvard Professor and former US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, 2013-2017.
2017
Maxind Freedman ’18 from Chicago, worked at the Center for Victims of Torture, in St. Paul, MN as a National Capacity Building Intern. She worked with the technical assistance arm of the Center that leads capacity building for organizations across the nation who treat survivors of torture. Her work included updating an e-learning course on the fundamentals of treating survivors of torture, and other tasks like writing the quarterly digest and creating a summary of past program evaluations. This internship allowed her to significantly increase her knowledge about the effects of torture on survivors, how survivors are treated in the United States, and how an international organization works with its funders and partners. She indicated, “After Mac, I hope to do the Peace Corps in Latin American and eventually work internationally to help families flourish.”
2016
Maggie Poulos ’18 from Oceanside, NY, interned as an International Justice Intern at the Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis, a refugee and immigrant NGO. She researched international treaties and declarations and wrote reports submitted to the United Nations on specific country’s human rights violations, including violence against women, religious minorities, and the LGBTQIA community. She was able to also participate in calls with the federal government, write blog posts and develop a guideline to track court cases within the Inter-American system. Her internship led to continued work in the fall of 2016 at the Advocates, where she met with immigrants from Central American and Eastern Africa seeking asylum or refugee status and referring their cases to the organization’s staff attorney. As have all Ostermeier Fellows, Maggie found the experiential education gained through her internship was very valuable indicating, “I am grateful and humbled to have been awarded a fellowship honoring the legacy of Amy Ostermeier. My time at The Advocates has affirmed for me that I want to continue in the field of international relations and human rights.”
Merrit Stuven ’17 from Munich, Germany, interned with the Kakenya Center for Excellence (KCE) an NGO supporting girls’ education in Kenya including combating female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage. This Washington DC NGO is small and enabled Merrit to work with a variety of projects. Main responsibilities were running and re-vitalizing KCE’s social media; doing research projects on FGM, early marriage and girls’ education rates in the Maasai community in Kenya, sub-Saharan Africa and globally; researching partner and peer organizations and working on a communications strategy for the organization. Working in a small organization provided Merrit with a number of opportunities and challenges, and enabled her to be a trusted team member. She also worked with a recent Macalester graduate, Jolena Zabel ’16, who was a past Ostermeier Fellow and who had joined the organization as the new communications and development associate. Merit indicated “When describing my human rights interests to others I often say that my passion lies at the intersection of women’s rights and education, and KCE exemplifies that passion.” This internship built on her Macalester education, and impacted her worldview and career aspirations. Merrit thanked the Ostermeier Fellowship program “for enabling me and other Macalester students throughout the years to dedicate ourselves to human rights work.”
2015
Jillian L. Neuberger ’16 from New Canaan, CT, interned with the U.S. Department of State, Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (The office that Amy Ostermeier worked in and was the Senior Human Rights Officer). Jillain worked on three main projects. First she helped manage three resolutions for the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) including providing guidance for text negotiations, managing Department and interagency equities involved in resolutions, drafting statements or explanations of votes, and sending instruction cables. Second, she drafted communications with embassies overseas. In pursuing U.S. priorities at the HRC, and in other forums like the Economic and Social Council, the Department often sends messages to U.S. posts to convey to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in their respective countries. Third she worked on treaty body elections. This included the campaign for the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the campaign for the Committee against Torture.
Jolena M. Zabel ’16 from Hastings, MN, interned with the U.S. Department of State (DOS) in the Office of Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. Her work portfolio included three components: Gender, Social Media, and “Principle” Management. Work in gender issues included helping to determine the extent to which DOS bureaus and offices were living up to expectations set by Secretary Kerry. Social media and Principle management included providing help in managing, producing and providing analytics for Undersecretary Sewall and other high level diplomats. This work required many different skills, from the creative to the diagnostic. Her internship helped her better understand her career interests, skillset and preferred professional environment.
2014
Emma Cederlund ’15 from Stockholm, Sweden, interned at the international programming unit at the American Refugee Committee (ARC), located in Minneapolis. ARC’s mission is to work with its partners and constituencies to provide opportunities and expertise to refugees, displaced people and host communities. Cederlund assisted the team that supported ARC’s country offices, helping them throughout a project cycle, from the initiation of a project, the funding process, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. She was especially engaged with ARC’s Gender-Based Violence protection plan, making sure women’s rights/protection from violence was a crucial part of all projects. After she graduates from Macalester: “I wish to pursue a career working with human rights, empowering women, and fighting to eradicate violence against women,” said Cederlund. “The internship has allowed me to explore future paths within the human rights and humanitarian fields.”
Luiza Montesanti ’15 is from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and interned at the Advocates for Human Rights, located in Minneapolis, whose mission is to implement international human rights standards in order to promote civil society and reinforce the rule of law. Montesanti said “This first-hand knowledge about asylum-seeking procedures, U.S. immigration law, and the different conflicts that prompt people to flee their countries complements what I have learned in my Political Science classes at Macalester, and helps me understand what I might want to do in the future”. She interned with the Refugee and Immigrant Program, which offers free legal representation to individuals seeking political asylum in the United States. Her responsibilities included managing the client line, where she listened to clients’ stories and conducted initial intake, often in Spanish or French. She also conducted country condition research and assisted with some of the legal proceedings. Lastly, she translated documents and managed the communication with clients who didn’t speak English, including during attorney meetings and asylum interviews at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Department. Working at Advocates for Human Rights made her consider HR law more seriously. “As a student of international development, I am also interested in economic and social rights, and drawn to understand what are the root causes, not only political, that cause people to leave their homes, said Montesanti. “Sometime after Macalester I intend to attend graduate school and return to Brazil to pursue a career in international development.”
Joseph Walker ’16 from Clear Lake, Minn., promoted the website HealTorture.org. The HealTorture.org website was launched in 2009 as a resource center for people who are interested in healing after torture. Created by the National Capacity Building Project, a division of the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), this website contains information for healthcare providers and social workers that addresses important considerations for working with survivors of torture. Walker worked on several different projects, including the monthly newsletters and various other articles, raising awareness about CVT programs for the website. “I have always had an intense interest, both academic and personal, in human rights,” said Walker. “Receiving the Amy Ostermeier Human Rights Fellowship allowed me to pursue my passion for human rights in a non-academic context by applying the knowledge I have acquired in the classroom to the focused, purposeful work I performed at my internship.” Once he graduates, Walker plans to pursue graduate studies in either political science or geography with the long-term goal of teaching at a college or university.