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This cash prize is awarded to the rising Columbia College senior majoring in Human Rights who submits the best proposal for a summer or term-time human rights internship, and is intended to be used to help defray the expenses of the internship.
This prize is awarded annually to the Columbia College student majoring in human rights who has the highest grade point average and a superior record of academic achievement in Human Rights.
This cash prize is awarded to the rising Columbia College senior majoring in human rights who submits the best proposal for a summer or term-time human rights internship, and is intended to be used to help defray the expenses of the internship. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, with priority deadlines of early December for Spring term submissions, and early April for Summer submissions. Alternatively, for general research or internship funding, students should review ISHR's undergraduate financial resources page. Please apply here: APPLICATION: Myra Kraft Human Rights Prize
Rebecca Cai graduated from Columbia College in 2020 with a double-major in Human Rights and Economics. In her coursework at Columbia and at the University of Oxford as an Oxbridge Scholar, Rebecca specialized in development economics and comparative politics. Her independent undergraduate research focused on women’s economic rights in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rebecca is currently working as a research associate for Development Data Lab, analyzing data on economic development in India. She plans to pursue graduate study and further research on the intersection between economic development and gender. In her free time, Rebecca enjoyed art history, performing as a member of Columbia’s Raw Elementz dance group, and hiking as a COÖP leader.
Tessa graduated from Columbia University in 2019 with a degree in Human Rights, specializing in Latin American Studies. During her time at Columbia, her interest in law and justice reform led her to participate in Mock Trial and work for public defenders in Washington, D.C. and the Bronx, New York. She completed an undergraduate thesis on the racial and socioeconomic discrimination in the United States Family Court system, examining how international human rights norms might be deployed domestically to achieve a more equitable model for child welfare. Tessa also spent a semester studying in Argentina, where she researched strategies for combating the labor exploitation of Bolivian migrants.
Eliana Kanefield graduated from Columbia where she studied Hispanic Studies and Human Rights with a specialization in Ethnicity and Race Studies. While at Columbia, Eliana co-founded and edited Portales, an international undergraduate research journal with a focus on Latin American and Iberian cultures, co-developed a literacy and nutrition program through Community Impact Leadership Program, learned about corporate social responsibility and public service through the Kenneth Cole Community Action Program, and taught classes in local public schools on conflict-resolution and genocide.
She has pursued her interests in human rights, diplomacy, and policy implementation through internships with the Gender, Human Rights, and Culture branch of the UN Population Fund, Human Rights Foundation, Office of Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs, and Center for Democracy in the Americas. She is currently teaching in Argentina at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, as well as in rural communities, as a Fulbright Scholar.
Ella Every-Wortman graduated from Columbia University in 2016 where they majored in Human Rights with a focus on Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies and and minored in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. While at Columbia, Ella pursued their interest in restorative justice with a two-year long independent research project entitled "'Not to Forget but to Live': Reimagining Justice and Sexual Violence at the University," a project which takes up transformative justice as an alternative to current punitive systems of justice. Centering intersectional feminist anti-violence theory and an anti-carceral lens, this work brings together justice literature with original focus group and interview research to ask given the complex ideological, material, and systemic investments that inform the dynamics of sexual violence on college campuses, what would transformative justice at Columbia University look like and how can we use it to deconstruct the boundaries of privilege and marginalization that are mutually constituted through interpersonal and systemic violence. Ella was a core organizer for Columbia Prison Divest, a successful student-led campaign to divest Columbia University's endowment from the private prison industry, and also served as a Peer Advocate for Sexual Violence Response (SVR).
As a double major in Human Rights and Psychology, Brooke has long been interested in how and why conflicts develop as well as how to identify sustainable interventions that can help break cycles of violence. During her undergraduate career at Columbia, Brooke served as a Lead Activist for the Columbia Democrats as well as a Policy Director for the Columbia University Students for Human Rights, advocating successfully for the group's official establishment. Her work at The Fortune Society as part of a Kenneth Cole Community Engagement Fellowship enabled her to examine critically the criminal justice system in the United States while an internship at Doctors Without Borders during the Ebola crisis gave her a inside perspective on the complexity of international humanitarian aid work. After studying abroad in Dharamsala, India, Brooke wrote her senior human rights seminar paper on how the Tibetan Exile community understands and employs human rights rhetoric in their political and social struggle. Following graduation, Brooke completed service as a Peace Corps Community and Youth Development Volunteer in Armenia before undertaking an AmeriCorps Project Conserve position in her hometown of Brevard, North Carolina. In fall of 2018, Brooke will enter UMass Amherst's Psychology of Peace and Violence Program in pursuit of a doctoral degree in Social Psychology.
