Student Symposium 2023
The Human Rights Institute 1L Advocates Program
The 1L Advocates Program (1LAP), unique to Columbia Law School, supports students interested in human rights with special programming in their first year of law school. The program includes curated seminars on human rights, mentorship, visits to human rights organizations in NYC, and a community of students and human rights advocates. The program sets students up for long-term involvement or careers in human rights.
Applications for the 2025/2026 academic year are open until 28 June at 11:59pm Eastern can be found here.
About the Program
1LAP, founded in 2017, is offered by the Human Rights Institute (HRI) and the student-led group Columbia Law Students Human Rights Association (formerly Rightslink).
Students selected to be fellows in the program will receive:
- Human rights mentoring and community: Advocates receive individualized and group mentorship from practicing human rights advocates, and Columbia Law faculty, staff, graduates, and current students.
- Specialized human rights seminars: Advocates attend monthly seminars that overview key issues in human rights, given by leading human rights advocates.
- Human rights work and experience: Advocates have the opportunity to work on a range of advocacy work undertaken by HRI and the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, as well as the United Nations and NGOs around the world. All Advocates are required to undertake public interest work as part of the 1LAP program
- Visits to human rights organizations in New York: Advocates have the opportunity to visit NGOs in New York City, meet with staff, and learn about human rights careers.
More than one hundred students have completed the program and gone on to do summer internships around the world at public interest and human rights organizations, the United Nations, and local and national government. Many have also participated in the Human Rights Clinic or conducted research and advocacy for one of HRI’s projects. Following law school graduation, 1LAP alumni have been awarded prestigious fellowships and many are doing human rights work for NGOs, international institutions, government, or courts.
How to Apply
Participation is by competitive application in the summer before 1L begins. Applications for the 2024/2025 academic year are open until 28 June 2025 and be found here.
FAQs
Who is eligible to apply?
All incoming first-year J.D. students with an interest in and commitment to human rights are encouraged to apply. Prior experience in human rights is not a prerequisite for admission.
Can I apply to this Program and other Columbia programs?
Yes, you can apply to, and participate in, both the 1L Advocates Program and other initiatives, including the The Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program. Applications are reviewed separately and admission into one program does not impact another.
What type of programming is offered as part of 1LAP?
In addition to fall orientation, social events during the year, and a celebratory dinner in April, 1L Advocates will participate in roughly six seminars tailored to cover timely topics in the human rights field. Recent seminars, taught by leading human rights advocates, have covered issues such as human rights law, human rights strategies and tactics, critiques of human rights, career pathways, and building well-being and resilience.
What kind of human rights work can I take on during the 1L year?
1L Fellows are expected to dedicate a portion of their time during 1L to a human rights or social justice-related activity. This commitment can take myriad forms, such as being a part of a social justice-oriented student initiative, volunteering with an NGO, conducting human rights work through HRI and the Clinic, or doing a caravan. The 1L curriculum is a demanding experience, and the 1L Advocates program was designed with this reality in mind.
Contact
If you have any questions about the 1L Advocates Program, please write to us at [email protected]
Our Current Cohort:
Alexis Jade Ferguson
Name: Alexis Jade Ferguson
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
I was motivated to engage in a diverse community of peers dedicated to exploring lawyering as an avenue for social justice and systemic reconfiguration. I hoped to contribute to critical discourse on the role of legal regimes in informing socioeconomic power imbalances alongside colleagues committed to uplifting marginalized communities and their often silenced narratives. I was inspired by the ground-breaking advocacy efforts and clinical scholarship by both the HRI and its alumni-ambassadors and wished to convene with like-minded change agents and mentors seeking to theorize solutions to pressing human rights issues.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am passionate about civil rights, especially pertaining to combating police brutality, political imprisonment, and labor injustice. I spent a summer in Alabama researching racial disparities in the administration of capital punishment and possess a wide variety of experience in grassroots organizing, civil impact litigation, and critical criminological research. From working at DC Jobs with Justice, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research to Black Girls Vote, Solomon Law Firm, and the Telluride Association, I’ve unearthed interests in exploring the place for transformative justice and critical race theory in contemporary legal systems.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
I hope to be a capital defense attorney working to fight the death penalty in the South and advocating for youth of color subject to life without parole. I hope to work for a non-profit dedicated to coupling legal services for indigent defendants with radical educational advocacy and holistic re-entry programming. I am also inspired by organizations committed to exploring victim-offender mediation practices and problematizing notions of culpability, accountability, and justice in consciousness-raising groups for those formerly incarcerated.
Alisha Arshad
Name: Alisha Arshad
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
Growing up, I witnessed the struggles of women, children, and refugees in my community and abroad, which inspired my passion for human rights advocacy. Then, throughout college, I explored human rights through various international organizations and grassroots initiatives, which demonstrated the power of combining law and policy to implement actual change and promote human rights. My interest in human rights law has only deepened since then. The 1L Advocates Program offers an unparalleled opportunity to further my understanding of human rights law through specialized training, seminars, and mentorship. By participating in this program, I aim to deepen my knowledge of human rights law and develop practical skills in litigation, policy analysis, and legal research, all of which are crucial for effective advocacy and change.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am deeply passionate about advocating for women's rights, children's rights, and refugee protection. Before coming to Columbia Law School, I pursued a B.A. in Human Rights with a specialization in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia College. I engaged in academic research focused on gender-based violence, refugee rights, and educational inequality. Additionally, I worked with organizations such as Human Rights First and World Vision, assisting asylum seekers and supporting children's and women's rights in various projects. These experiences have solidified my commitment to addressing systemic injustices through legal advocacy and reform.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
When I graduate from law school, I aspire to become a human rights lawyer, focusing on the protection and advancement of the rights of women, children, and refugees. Moreover, I hope to be a lawyer and advocate who helps strengthen the relationship between international organizations and grassroots groups to implement and enforce human rights policies more effectively.
Andreamarie Efthymoiu
Name: Andreamarie Efthymiou
Home Country: United States of America (Dual Citizenship: Cyprus)
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
While working in international law and diplomacy, I witnessed firsthand how useful the work of human rights-focused organizations was in coordinating research efforts, leading effective collaboration with civil society organizations, and facilitating global cooperation on human rights
advocacy. I seek to contribute to this kind of work early in my legal career, under the guidance of the foremost practitioners. The 1L Advocates Program is the ideal venue to do just that, providing its cohort with early exposure to different perspectives, mentorship, and the opportunity to work
alongside global NGOs - all of which are salient in one’s journey to become an effective and informed advocate.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
My interest in human rights law stems from my Cypriot identity, which inspired me to question the efficacy of international legal systems as I observed the effects of displacement on two generations of Cypriots, their loss of fundamental human rights, and the lasting economic and sociopolitical effects of military aggression on one small island state. While working both in diplomacy and international arbitration, I have contributed to the progress made in protecting the rights of small sovereign states and their populations. At the permanent mission of Cyprus to the United Nations, I worked with diplomats and their counterparts in the
third and fourth General Assembly committees, as well as on the Commission on the Status of Women. As a paralegal at Foley Hoag, I had the opportunity to work on state submissions to the International Court of Justice on matters ranging from territorial integrity to climate change.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
As a Columbia Law graduate, I hope to continue my career in international law, with particular focus on public international law, the use of force, and human rights.
Annie McGovern
Name: Annie McGovern
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
I applied to law school with the intention of pursuing a career in human rights advocacy, so I was thrilled to be accepted into the 1LAP. The program offers students the unique opportunity to partake in humans rights curriculum immediately upon entering law school. I am extremely passionate about this work and eager to take advantage of any opportunity to engage in it. The 1LAP also boasts an impressive network of accomplished students, faculty, and professionals, all of whom I am excited to work alongside and learn from.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
Given the intersectionality of all issues pertaining to human rights, I often find it difficult to narrow down my interests, but I typically gravitate towards projects that advance gender and racial equity in both the US and abroad. I was first introduced to the realm of international human rights when researching the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the supervision of the University Network for Human Rights. My team traveled to Armenia to conduct a fact-finding mission and released a report outlining the ongoing abuses. Prior to this project, I advocated for Reproductive Justice by volunteering as an abortion doula, a sexual educator for high-schoolers, and as an intern with NARAL Pro-Choice. I also worked as a Domestic Violence Advocate in New York where I helped survivors access safe housing, governmental benefits, counseling, and other basic necessities in a trauma-informed manner.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
I envision myself traveling to sites of conflicts that receive less international media attention to learn about the needs of the community from those who are directly affected. I then hope to use people’s stories, with their consent, to create informative reports that spread awareness and hold leaders accountable for protecting their citizens. I also intend to take advantage of the United States’ privileged position on the world stage by garnering grassroots support across our country and placing further pressure on those in power. At a more general level, I picture a career in which I can combine my love for interpersonal connection and desire to help others with my interest in history, policy, and law. I hope to fulfill my dream of working at a non-profit, NGO, or governmental department that specifically serves the needs of women and children around the world.
Emily Dinan
Name: Emily Dinan
Home Country: USA
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
I worked for a human rights organization prior to enrolling in law school, primarily in project organization and donor relations. I’ve always been interested in the legal side of human rights work, but I’m still deciding how I’d like to contribute to this field. I decided to apply to 1LAP to learn more about different pathways in human rights law.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I worked for a juvenile justice project in the Middle East prior to law school, and I would like to continue that kind of work closer to home. My thesis work as an undergraduate and master’s student focused on the racial profiling of immigrants by law enforcement, and that’s an issue I’d like to continue to explore.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
I hope to spend some time providing direct services to indigent communities, and I’m especially interested in contributing to a juvenile justice program.
Kara ElGarhy
Name: Kara ElGarhy
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
Human rights law is a niche field whose practitioners follow non-traditional career paths when compared to most law school graduates. I knew that I would need guidance to help me navigate this route. The 1L Advocates Program represents a critical opportunity to learn among a community of people with similar interests, to access spaces to work on the issues I care about while still in school, and to develop my skill set and network.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am passionate about rights-based approaches to international development, international conflict resolution and diplomacy, and international law enforcement. I started my professional career in Egypt, first at the American University in Cairo and later at Ashoka Arab World, an NGO focused on social entrepreneurship. Most recently, I spent a year at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in the Post-Conviction Relief Act Unit, where I supported the implementation of open file review and police misconduct disclosure policies.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
My goal is to enter federal public service. I see myself as an Attorney-Advisor for the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where I want to defend humanitarian law and norms, guide responsible development and foreign policy, and support international criminal prosecution and law enforcement.
Bitania Endalkachew
Name: Bitania Endalkachew
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
In the future, I hope to use the law in new ways to bring about change and the 1L Advocates Program can help me achieve that. The ability to hear from cutting-edge, creative lawyers and professionals who are actively using the law to inspire change is exactly what I was looking for. It seemed obvious to me that I should try to put myself in the same spaces as those who are doing what I hope to do and this program's access to mentorship from incredible legal professionals and connection with phenomenal nonprofit organizations was unmatched.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I would like to learn more about human rights as a field, but at the moment I am interested in technology/privacy rights and women’s rights in an international context. I work at the National Women’s Law Center for the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund (TULDF) where we work to connect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace to attorneys. I have also worked at Tahirih Justice Center on Afghan asylum issues, where I was in charge of the smooth operation of our program from the Helpline to supporting asylum applications.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
When I graduate, I hope to be working internationally on topics such as technology/privacy rights, relationships between countries, or women’s rights. International law and human rights law has become my main interest within the law, so I would hope to be contributing to a project or group that aligns with that. Moreover, I would like to continue exploring how the law intersects dynamically in the structure of a government with regard to culture and religion.
Mahak Kumari
Name: Mahak Kumari
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
Arriving at Columbia Law School, I was excited to continue working in international human rights, and I knew 1LAP would allow me to build upon my experiences through its extensive opportunities both on and off campus in New York City. Additionally, as a researcher, I found that HRI’s methodology of combining fact finding and research with strategic advocacy to create systemic shifts resonated with my own view of progress. Most importantly, joining the legal field from a nontraditional background, I knew 1LAP would allow me to learn and practice the law alongside like-minded individuals who are equally committed to building a more just and sustainable world.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am especially interested in addressing criminal justice and immigration policy issues. Through the Microsoft Pro Bono Program, I recently supported legal aid efforts to help justice-impacted communities vacate their criminal records and supported LGBTQ asylum applications and DACA documentation. Throughout law school and my career, I hope to not only continue to act as a legal representative for immigrant communities but also promote new policies that protect and meet their needs and support their transition rather than criminalize their existence.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
With my professional background in humanitarian research, I am well placed to identify global human rights challenges and design solutions. I am now bringing these skills to human rights advocacy in order to actively pursue those changes. After graduating from Columbia, I hope to promote equality and justice both domestically and internationally, specifically at the intersection of immigration, refugee rights, and criminal justice as well as address rights violations in prisons and in criminal trials both in the U.S. and globally.
Kenzo Okazaki
Name: Kenzo Okazaki
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
My experiences learning and teaching about Japanese-American Internment have informed my interest in human rights law and its potential capacity to address contemporary racial discrimination and exclusion. I was excited by this program because of the opportunity it offers to learn from the disciplinary backgrounds of fellow participants. I hope that it will allow us to explore how our various fields of advocacy intersect and can contribute to one another.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am particularly interested in the proliferation of agreements that provide for the interdiction of asylum seekers before they reach their destinations. I have previously researched the nature of economic cooperation agreements which aim to contain migration to European nations at the University of Oxford. I also founded and continue to lead a project that brings students from Japan and across the United States to sites of Japanese-American Internment camps to assist organizations such as the National Park Service in translating primary documents.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
I hope to pursue a career in International Public Law but am undecided on a specific field.
Emmanuel Uyi Osayande
Name: Emmanuel Uyi Osayande
Home Country: Nigeria
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
I hope to explore and leverage the core pillars of the 1L Advocates Program (1LAP), including community, mentorship, and academic and professional development, to advance of my interests and career goals in law and litigation. The 1LAP community will undoubtably serve as a space to develop these interests further, while also benefitting from the support of peers and mentors. I further hope to learn from faculty, alumni, and legal professionals connected to the program, through their wealth of knowledge and experience and connect with like-minded 1LAP colleagues who are similarly passionate about social impact lawyering.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
The issues I am interested in are primarily related to the intersection of international human rights, civil rights, business and human rights, and governance. My prior experiences have shaped these interests in meaningful ways. Growing up in Nigeria, I learnt about how state and civil society actors addressed human rights issues and the role of the law in this engagement. Such life experiences reflected the possibility of making an impact through nonprofit work. In 2014, I founded WOKE- an organization that empowers underserved youth through legal advocacy, digital mentorship, and capacity-building outreach. Through this work, we were able to recruite lawyers to help petition the federal government of Nigeria to provide remote learning resources to support public school students whose education had been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
My life experiences significantly shape my post-graduation plans, especially regarding how I perceive the role and potential of the legal profession in social justice and human rights work. I believe the law is an avenue for change especially through research, advocacy, and accountability. As such, I hope to put my legal education to use in these aspects by supporting those in need, stimulating progress in the profession, and adding value to society. I therefore aspire to a career as a lawyer and legal scholar. Also, as a current Ph.D. candidate in African history at Harvard University, I hope the legal training I receive at Columbia will help to advance my current research that focuses on the history of human rights, law, and governance in the post-war era.
Safia Southey
Name: Safia Southey
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
Having long been passionate about human rights work, the 1L Advocates Program stood out to me as the perfect avenue to amplify my dedication to this cause. Through its multifaceted approach, the 1LAP promised an immersive exploration of intricate subjects, making it an optimal learning environment for me. Beyond the prospect of acquiring critical thinking and leadership skills from interactions with public interest experts, my primary impetus for joining lies in the sense of community that the program fosters. The opportunity to meet and engage with like-minded people within the school promises an immense sense of belonging and relief. I am hugely excited at the chance to discuss the issues I am interested in with other similarly passionate students through specialized seminars, mentorship, and hands-on human rights work experience.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am a passionate human rights activist, learner, and world explorer. After high school, I moved to Jordan to work for the UN Relief and Works Agency in support of human rights policies for refugees from across the Middle East. There, I saw how entire communities lacked basic resources for survival and were deprived of the redress articulated by the General Assembly. Following this experience, I dedicated my academic and professional career to pursuing human rights, international law, and transitional justice. I am specifically interested in how to support victims of human rights abuses following situations of conflict, alternative methods of justice, and international law enforcement mechanisms. I have been fortunate to work in a number of human rights research and advocacy roles, including with the World Bank, the UN Refugee Agency, the US State Department, the International Public Law and Public Group, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
After graduating from Columbia Law School, I hope to work with States around the world to develop just and inclusive domestic law and support community-led transitional justice mechanisms following situations of crisis. I hope to help develop contemporary transitional justice efforts–which have been inherently top-down, government-focused legal mechanisms, through the use of Participatory Action Research, a bottom-up process that leverages local knowledge to find community-driven solutions. Specially, I am interested in working with groups such as the International Center on Transitional Justice and the International Law and Policy Group to hold federal, state, and local governments accountable to presiding legal infrastructure and advocate for these parties to take an active role in administering redress.
Jacob Turner
Name: Jacob Turner
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
I was mainly motivated to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School by the community and resources that it provides. As someone who has only engaged with public interest work from a non-law related position, I am eager to take advantage of the mentoring from practicing human right advocates. Additionally, the sense of community amongst advocates that the program provides will prove to be invaluable as I get to work alongside and learn from like-minded peers.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
Although I intend to explore a myriad of human rights issues during my time as a 1L Advocate, equitable access to a quality education is at the forefront of my human rights interests. Before coming to Columbia, I was a Teach for America Corps member placed in Philadelphia 8th grade Special Ed math and English classrooms. During this time, I also earned my Master’s degree at University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. After completing my Master’s program and Teach for America, I taught for a third year as a high school music teacher.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
After I graduate from Columbia, I plan to serve the public interest in the most impactful way that I can. With a strong background in education, pursuing educational equity by means of public policy or public interest organizations is something that greatly interests me. At the same time however, I plan to use programs such as the 1L Advocates Program in order to explore other ways that I can serve the public interest in impactful ways.
Dimitri A. Vallejo
Name: Dimitri A. Vallejo
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocates Program at Columbia Law School?
I am excited to meet like-minded peers and engage with passionate faculty on matters to amplify the voices of those in need. I am determined to address systemic issues by advocating for equitable healthcare, data privacy, and cybersecurity. As an individual who has battled cancer while experiencing the dire consequences of limited access to affordable healthcare, I am driven to fight for human rights by ensuring that no one is denied adequate treatment based on their socioeconomic status. The 1L Advocates Program’s focus on human rights aligns perfectly with my commitment to rectifying the injustices I have personally encountered.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
At the age of 19, I became the youngest trainee to secure a mediation certification at the New York Peace Institute in 2017. Over the next three years, I took to platforms such as Craigslist, Reddit, and Facebook, assisting dozens of clients—neighbors in an East-Harlem complex, dog walkers in Rosendale, and store owners in Crown Heights—all bound by a common aspiration to constructively resolve their conflicts. I further supported nonprofit organizations such as the New York Legal Assistance Group and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, where I contributed to providing free legal services to low-income individuals and to this day, I volunteer with the Valerie Fund, an organization aiding children with blood disorders.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
I firmly believe that our society possesses the capacity to transcend a status quo that systematically denies human rights based on demographics. We have the power to establish justice. It is this pursuit that propels me towards a career as a public interest attorney, driven by the desire to promote impartial humanitarianism and eradicate needless suffering within the healthcare industry. I hope to pair my expertise in data privacy and cybersecurity with my passion for improving healthcare accessibility and accountability through engaging with key decision-makers in the field.
Current Student Leadership:
Skylar Gleason
Name: Skylar Gleason
Home Country: United States of America
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocate Program Student Leadership cohort at Columbia Law School?
I decided to join the 1LAP student leadership cohort because 1LAP serves as such an incredible door to the CLS human rights community. The first-year curriculum is quite intensive and lacks in-depth engagement with human rights topics even when such topics appear in the content. Therefore, it was phenomenal to meet with so much of the human rights faculty, form relationships with like-minded peers, and be exposed to the wide range of human rights opportunities at Columbia. Additionally, the pro bono component helped me feel more connected to the reasons I had decided to attend law school and kept me excited about human rights work.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am primarily interested in transitional justice and atrocity accountability, as well as the intersection of climate change and human rights. However, I enjoy learning about all human rights issues and am trying to develop a broad base of knowledge while at CLS. Prior to coming to law school, I worked in human rights and social justice in a variety of capacities. During college, I interned with a public defense office, an interfaith social justice organization, and a public interest firm focused on international human rights. After graduation, I returned to the firm—Perseus Strategies—for a two-year fellowship. There, I blended government, media, and legal advocacy to advance a wide array of human rights projects, including political prisoner cases, investigative reports on atrocity crimes, and international parental child abduction cases. I then worked at Scholars at Risk, where I monitored and documented attacks on academic freedom.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
Following graduation, I hope to stay in the field of international human rights law. I am specifically interested in working on the legal responses to atrocity crimes and shaping how those legal responses fit into broader transitional justice efforts. However, I am open to engaging in many areas of human rights and have enjoyed all the work I have done so far.
Daria Mateescu
Name: Daria Mateescu
Home Country: U.S. / Romania
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocate Program Student Leadership cohort at Columbia Law School?
I came to law school committed to a career in human rights law and seeking a community of like-minded peers. I also had a critical lens towards human rights as a political weapon, particularly as it has been used to defend war and U.S. interventionism. Being part of the cohort, I hope to collaboratively shift our theoretical understanding of human rights and also our imagination for what careers in the field might look like.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
Currently, I am most interested in the labor issues affecting workers in Eastern Europe, as well as the economic exploitation of Romanian workers when they migrate to Western nations. Before coming to Columbia, I worked as a second-grade teaching assistant and a home care worker.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
I hope to eventually return to Eastern Europe and investigate the human rights and environmental abuses perpetrated by Western corporations and enabled by corrupt local politicians.
Sofia Calvo Castillo
Name: Sofia Calvo Castillo
Home Country: Costa Rica
What motivated your decision to join the 1L Advocate Program Student Leadership cohort at Columbia Law School?
I knew the 1L course was going to be heavily doctrinal in areas of law that were important, but not what I planned to focus on for my career. I wanted to have a space from the beginning in which I could take a break from the workload and learn about issues that I felt passionate about. I was excited about the pro-bono work, and wanted to learn from student leaders’ experiences. Finding community was important to me too, and I knew that the 1LAP cohort would be a place to find like-minded people.
What human rights issues do you care about? What work have you done before coming to Columbia?
I am interested in refugee/immigration law, humanitarian law, armed conflict, and transitional justice, among many other things. Before coming to CLS, I was an intern at Human Rights First in the refugee representation department. I helped conduct screenings and intakes for asylum seekers. I continue to interpret client meetings occasionally. Later, I worked as a humanitarian immigration paralegal at a NJ law firm, focusing primarily on deportation defense. I worked on asylum, U-visas, and special immigrant juvenile petitions, along with some family petition cases.
What do you hope to do when you graduate from Columbia?
There are so many things that I could see myself doing that it is hard to choose. I hope to be able to work with an organization that is flexible and allows me to work on a wide range of projects. While there are plenty of human rights issues affecting communities in the United States, I am also interested in working internationally. Eventually, I would love to be able to work for the Interamerican Court of Human Rights, which is also located in my home town in Costa Rica.