Congratulations to the Class of 2017 and the Inaugural Class of Human Rights Minors!

Congratulations to all our graduating seniors who made a valuable contribution to the Handa Center's work this academic year through coursework, research, fellowships, and more! The Handa Center is especially proud to have graduated our first class of Human Rights Minors in the Class of 2017, including Maeve Richards, Christina Schiciano, and Alina Utrata. 

Launched in Fall 2016, the Human Rights Minor is a new opportunity for students in any major to undertake an interdisciplinary course of study on human rights theory and practice. The minor provides an academic home on campus, encouraging students from across the university to understand how human rights are connected across disciplines, mirroring the real world where interconnected human rights and international justice issues require a global mindset. 

The Handa Center’s Class of 2017 is well poised to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Our future is in good hands if the three inaugural Human Rights Minor graduates are any indication of future leaders and citizens of the world!  From transitional justice in post-conflict societies to philanthropy right here in Silicon Valley, these students engaged with challenging subject matters and came out with a strong commitment to have a positive impact locally and globally.  

Maeve Richards was born and raised in Austin, Texas. At Stanford, she majored in History with a concentration in South and Southeast Asia and minored in Human Rights. During her time at Stanford, she was on the varsity debate team, and interned at the office of Senator Barbara Boxer and for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Her Human Rights minor capstone project focused on Rohingya migration and trafficking. She is excited to be staying in the area after graduation to work for the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation as a Program Analyst.

Christina Schiciano majored in Political Science with minors in Arabic and Human Rights. In Summer 2016, with the support of the Handa Center, she worked as an intern at the State Department conducting research on gender-based violence and human trafficking patterns around the world. After graduation Christina will be working at McKinsey & Company. She hopes she can one day combine her interests in the law and human rights issues by pursuing a career in international criminal law.

Alina Utrata majored in History and the Law and minored in Human Rights. She has been involved in the Handa Center since its move to Stanford, joining the Student Advisory Board in 2015, trial monitoring in Phnom Penh during the summer of 2016, and working as a Student Assistant for the center during the 2016-2017 academic year. In Summer 2015, she worked at the Balkan Institute for Conflict Resolution, Responsibility and Reconciliation in Sarajevo. In 2016, she received support from the Handa Center to work as a trial monitor in Cambodia.  Her honors thesis with the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, "Stories Courts Tell: The Problematic History of the Yugoslav Tribunal in Bosnia and Herzegovina, " examines the impact that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had on Bosnia. As a Marshall Scholar, Alina will pursue a Master’s degree in conflict transformation and social justice at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Listen to Alina and Christina’s capstone project, the "History and Human Rights" podcast series.