Justine Ho (Rutgers University Spring 2024 Intern)

Justine is double majoring in Psychology and Human Resources and minoring in Japanese at Rutgers University. She is thrilled to be part of the team at HRE USA, where she is eager to contribute to the impactful work being done and make a real difference in the lives of marginalized communities. Outside of her internship, you can often find her immersed in her hobbies. Justine has a passion for crochet and loves creating scarves and stuffed animals for her friends and family. She has dreams of one day visiting Japan and being able to immerse herself in their food, language, and culture. Justine explained, “I am excited to learn and grow alongside this inspiring team, and can’t wait to see what we can achieve together!”

Annika Malhotra (Rutgers University Spring 2024 Intern)

Annika Malhotra is an undergraduate student at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a 2024 Spring Term intern at HRE USA. She is majoring in Political Science, minoring in American Studies, and is interested in human and civil rights. She aspires to attend law school and become an attorney, focusing on civil rights. Annika enjoys participating in taekwondo, painting, and listening to various kinds of music outside of academics. Annika shared, “I am grateful to be part of HRE USA, a strong team of individuals who advocate for human rights and value education as a tool and a vessel for spreading the message of human rights.”

Sahana Sentihilkumar (Rutgers University Fall 2023 Intern)

Sahana Senthilkumar is a second year at Rutgers University double majoring in biomathematics and computer science. She joined the HRE USA Now! Podcast Team as an intern during the Fall 2023 semester and worked with Dr. Kristi Rudelius-Palmer to create and meet weekly goals. By the end of her experience, she had created a slides presentation of the podcast’s download stats and presented it to the Podcast Team and Steering Committee, offered suggestions for outreach initiatives (i.e., creating a podcast-specific Instagram account), developed an audio transcription app using OpenAI’s open source software Whisper, and produced a draft transcript of the first episode. “Overall, I enjoyed working with the HRE USA Now! Podcast Team and am grateful to have had the opportunity to gain valuable technical knowledge by researching audio transcription software. I’m looking forward to seeing the team continue to leave their mark in the field of human rights and beyond!

2023 Edmonds Summer Fellow: Meredith Hood

Meredith earned her Master’s degree in Human Rights Practice from the University of Arizona in May 2022. It was during her capstone project working with the students in her mother’s third grade class she became interested in youth human rights education and was led to HRE USA. Prior to graduate school, Meredith earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science summa cum laude from Wittenberg University. While at Wittenberg she studied abroad in Germany where she interned at a local community center integrating Syrian refugees. Upon her return to the U.S., Meredith temporarily moved to DC to work at a refugee resettlement agency. This summer in addition to the Edmonds fellowship she is volunteering with the Ohio Women’s Alliance circulating a ballot initiative petition for reproductive justice. If the initiative is successful, Ohioans will vote in November to amend the state constitution to protect reproductive freedoms. Meredith lives in Columbus, Ohio with her partner Dylan and beloved rescue dog, Jeb.

2022 Edmonds Summer Fellow: Hallie McRae 

Hallie is a rising junior studying Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She is passionate about human rights and social justice advocacy, participating in programs and organizations dedicated to each. On campus, she is involved in UC Berkeley’s ACLU club, leading the Know Your Rights project team under the Criminal Justice Reform committee. Here, students inform the community about the rights they hold surrounding police and immigration forces through the creation of handouts, presentations to local high schools, and general education campaigns. She is also involved in student government, coordinating educational outreach and support for survivors of sexual violence and sexual harassment, and is a member of the Repair The World Campus Corps, targeting food insecurity by mobilizing community members each week to pack and deliver bags with essentials to unhoused folks. Engaging with Human Rights Watch Student Task Force throughout high school, Hallie benefitted largely from human rights education and advocacy in academic settings, and is thrilled to continue the work of expanding human rights education and organizational work in schools and communities nationwide with HRE USA. View Hallie’s Fellowship Impact Report Video

2022 Edmonds Summer Fellow: Natalie Roach 

Natalie is graduating this May with a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Connecticut (UConn). She also received her undergraduate degree from UConn, majoring in human rights and environmental sciences. As an undergraduate, Natalie was an officer of Revolution Against Rape, a student organization with a goal of ending rape culture. One main initiative of this work was giving consent workshops to high school classes across the state. Natalie was also deeply involved in bringing justice values into the environmental spheres at UConn, through many roles such as interning at the Office of Sustainability and organizing a landmark climate justice protest. Natalie currently works for Goodwill of Northern New England on their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. Last year she connected with store managers across 3 states in order to roll out an organization-wide culture survey to create a foundation for their current work. This fall, Natalie will be starting a fellowship at the Design Trust for Public Space in New York City to learn how public space & the built environment can be powerful tools to work towards justice and human rights. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, traveling, playing violin, and hanging out with her cat. Read Natalie Roach’s Edmond Fellowship report here.

2022 Edmonds Education Summer Fellow: Julie Rinker 

Julie Rinker is a public-school dyslexia interventionist and dyslexia teacher trainer in Dallas, TX. She became a human rights educator in 2019 after attending a Holocaust Pilgrimage in Poland. In the Summer of 2022, Julie was the first Educator Fellow for Human Rights Educators, USA. This involved reviewing the library of resources available to all teachers, free of charge. These sources equip opportunistic teachers with the materials and lesson plans needed to incorporate a human rights education into unconventional settings. View video report.