Alexis Herr '07
Even as alumna, Claremont McKenna College's Center for Human Rights Leadership continues to have a lasting impact on my scholastic and personal pursuits. The experiences I gained from academic travel trips to Washington, D.C. and Berlin, Germany along with the knowledge I obtained through the Holocaust and Genocide academic concentration, molded my personal and academic goals. The Center's AnneMerie Donoghue Human Rights Fellowship Program afforded me the opportunity to intern at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Most importantly, the mentorship and support of Professor John Roth and Professor Jonathan Petropolous inspired me to dedicate my life to the study of the Holocaust and the prevention of genocide.
With the encouragement of Professor Roth, I applied to Clark University, the only university in the world that offers a Ph.D. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. As a second year graduate student at Clark, I have focused my research on Italy and the Holocaust. My dissertation, "Remembering Fossoli di Carpi: From Death's Waiting Room to Ruins," explores the historical significance and cultural remembrance of Fossoli di Carpi, a former WWII deportation camp in northern Italy.
CMC's Center for Human Rights Leadership provided me with an outlet to develop my passion for the prevention and study of genocide. Once I have achieved my Ph.D. I plan to pursue a career in genocide prevention and relief work. One day, I hope to return to the classroom and inspire students just as my CMC professors did for me. My experiences with CMC's Center for Human Rights Leadership created an invaluable sense of purpose and passion, which continue to sustain my academic and personal pursuits in the field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Becky Grossman '08
Throughout my time at CMC, I was very involved in the Center. I joined the Center's SAC my sophomore year and participated in the academic travel program to Berlin that summer. Upon returning to CMC, I enrolled in Professor Roth's class on the Holocaust and starting working as a research assistant at the Center. I spent the next two years working for the Center. I was an AnneMerie Donoghue fellow over the summer of 2007; the fellowship allowed me to take a course on comparative genocide studies in Toronto, Canada. As part of my duties as a research assistant, I helped to organize and lead the academic travel program to Israel last May.
Additionally, the Center was very important to my experience at CMC. Through SAC, I met many like-minded students who were passionate about human rights issues. Through the academic sequence, I took was able to approach the discipline of genocide and human rights studies in an academic atmosphere. Through the fellowship, I engaged with individuals from all over the world who were also interested in issues of human rights. I am very grateful for the opportunities which the Center provided me while at CMC and continues to provide for me today.
After graduating, I was accepted for a Humanity in Action fellowship in New York City, where I engaged with European and American students on issues related to minority rights in democratic societies. I know that my experience with the Center prepared me well for this competitive fellowship. Through Humanity in Action, I was then able to secure an internship with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, Germany, where I worked for four months this past fall. Since January, I have been serving as a legal intern at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The Center at CMC definitely propelled me down the path of international human rights law, which is what I hope to study once I hunker down and apply for law school.
Joanna Repsold '07
My first introduction to the Center was through a trip to Washington DC where we had the privilege to meet with leading experts, members of Congress and researchers at the Holocaust Museum on human rights issues around the world. What an eye opener to what is happening in every corner of the world, from child soldiers in the jungles of Uganda to young women in the Middle East. I would later go on to travel again with the Center to Germany to study one of histories darkest periods and then down to Louisiana to lend our hand to Hurricane Katrina refugees.
Shortly after that first DC trip, I became involved with the Center as part of their Student Advisory Committee, helping to bring speakers to CMC to expand the students' knowledge of human rights issues around the globe and partnering with other campus efforts on the issue of genocide. In the Winter of 2005, four of us from the Center headed back to Washington DC to lobby members of Congress towards action on the issue of genocide in Darfur, as well as expand our education on the issue by meeting with the Holocaust Museum and members of the State Department.
Working and traveling with the Center took my experience with human rights issues from cursory knowledge to active involvement. It gave me the opportunity to meld my love of politics with my desire to impact the world. My eyes were opened to the breath and depth of need and injustice around the world while providing me with resources and connection to be proactive in helping find and implement solutions, raise awareness and educate others. I graduated CMC with a broadened world-view and a desire to continue my involvement in human rights issues.
Since CMC, I have been working in Hollywood at a production company dedicated to making issue-advocacy films that take on controversial topics relevant to today's culture in an effort to raise awareness and bring about change. My time at the Center has given me a unique perspective and level of expertise not often found in this industry, as well as an overall awareness of the most pressing human rights issues facing our world today. I am forever grateful for my time at the Center for the experiences it gave me and how it impacted my life, both then and now.