Summer 2024

For over 10 years, the CHRIJ has hosted an internship program for undergraduate students at Boston College. This has resulted in an impressive group of alumni/ae who are now making multiple contributions to human rights work, many citing their internship with the CHRIJ as instrumental in their acquiring skills that helped prepare them for their current path. Some have also credited the CHRIJ and the internship as having provided an important space at a time in their lives during which they could connect with and think through contemporary human rights issues in tangible ways, deepening their commitments to work for justice post-graduation.

CHRIJ Assistant Director Timothy Karcz has played a leading role in the development of the internship program over the years. He has worked to connect a cadre of students each year with research projects headed by the Center’s directors and affiliated faculty. Additionally, he has worked with the students in co-creating initiatives, including a range of programs for the Ƶ community aimed at fostering a better, more empathetic understanding of immigration issues and the immigration system in the US and refugee issues globally. This past spring’s Undocuweek at Ƶ is one example of such work. Karcz notes that “It made a lot of sense to leverage the resources made available to us through the CHRIJ to both provide faculty with much needed research assistance, while giving undergraduates interested in human rights an important experience and exposure to diverse human rights issues and action research issues and methodologies that could help them discern or foster their life goals while at Ƶ. They have been able to take these experiences forward with them into their careers and it is exciting to see what many of them have gone on to do.”

Raquel Muñiz, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Higher Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and an affiliated faculty member of the Center, has had the assistance of the Center’s interns on her research projects for several years. She commented, “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with interns from the Center across the years. They are thoughtful, dedicated, insightful, and overall excellent. I was pleased to invite fellows to co-author across the years, one of the most rewarding aspects of the work as I get to see them share their brilliance with the world."

Brinton Lykes, CHRIJ Co-director and Professor of Community-Cultural Psychology at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, noted that the CHRIJ Interns have made extraordinary contributions to the multiple human rights and psychosocial wellbeing projects and programs with which she has been affiliated at Ƶ. She got to know multiple future interns as sophomores through the McGillycuddy-Logue Program and was delighted that their participation in that interdisciplinary international program sowed interest in the CHRIJ and the internship program. She also deeply appreciated the work that multiple students contributed to and participated in workshops with transnational migrants, as co-authors and editors of the newsletter of the Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights (MBI), and traveling to Guatemala with her and the Center’s other co-director, Ƶ Law Professor Dan Kanstroom, on summer trips. She delights in learning how they are putting these experiences into praxis in diverse professional settings focused on human rights and wellbeing.

In the summer of 2024, the Center, with the help of its current undergraduate interns, Emmy Acevedo, Sofia Burke, and Sarai Mejía, caught up with a number of alumni of the program about what they are doing and reflecting back on how their internship experience impacted them:

Elizabeth Wollan
Elizabeth Wollan
Class of '19
Ivana Wijedasa
Ivana Wijedasa
Class of '22
Liam Maguire
Liam Maguire
Class of '17
Lori Niehaus
Lori Niehaus
Class of '18
Mary Noal
Mary Noal
Class of '20
Tugce Tumer
Tugce Tumer
Class of '21
Grace Cavanagh
Grace Cavanagh
Class of '21
Emma Kane
Emma Kane
Class of '21
Antonio Mata
Antonio Mata
Class of '23
Catherine Brewer
Catherine Brewer
Class of '24
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with interns from the Center across the years. They are thoughtful, dedicated, insightful, and overall excellent. I was pleased to invite fellows to co-author across the years, one of the most rewarding aspects of the work as I get to see them share their brilliance with the world.
Raquel Muñiz , Professor, LSEHD, and CHRIJ affiliated faculty member
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