Nineteen Harvard Law School students have been awarded 2023 Chayes International Public Service Fellowships for work with organizations based in 14 countries. The Chayes Fellows are listed below, with their summer placements and biographical information submitted by the students.
Hussain Awan – BADIL, Palestine
Hussain is a first-year Canadian-Pakistani student at Harvard Law School. He graduated as the class valedictorian from McGill University with a B.A. in international development, Middle East studies, Arabic, and French. He is interested broadly in international law, including international human rights work, refugee and immigration law, and international trade. At Harvard, Hussain is a co-president for the Muslim Law Students Association and a teaching fellow with the undergraduate Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department. The Chayes Fellowship will take him to the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights in Palestine, where his work will involve research on Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza and helping to prepare submissions to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Martha Ball – Asylum Protection Center, Serbia
Martha is a first-year student from Athens, West Virginia. She graduated from West Virginia University with a B.A. in political science and international studies and a minor in geography. Prior to attending Harvard Law School, she was an AmeriCorps member with the educational equity organization City Year. She is interested in immigration law and international human rights law. This summer she will be working at the Asylum Protection Center, an organization that provides legal assistance to asylum seekers and refugees in Serbia.
Roshni Chakraborty – TRIAL International, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Roshni is a first-year student from Kolkata, India. She graduated from Harvard College in 2022, where she studied conflict, migration, and gender. During her gap years, she worked with a non-profit in India on child protection and gender-based violence. At HLS, Roshni is involved with HLS Advocates for Human Rights and the International Law Journal, and works as a teaching fellow for classes on distributive justice and ethics. This summer she will be working at TRIAL International in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sagnik Das – International Criminal Court, The Netherlands
Sagnik is a second-year S.J.D. student from India. His research, supervised by Professor Gabriella Blum, focuses on the history of human rights discourse in international courts and tribunals. Previously, he graduated from the LL.M. program at HLS in 2019. He has also clerked at the High Court of Delhi, worked in the investment arbitration practice of an international law firm in Paris, and taught at a law school in India. Over the summer, he will be working as a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, assisting the judges with ongoing trials at the Court.
Izza Drury – Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid, Greece/Global Legal Action Network, Ireland
Izza is a second-year student from Vinalhaven, Maine. She graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in environmental studies with a focus on sustainable development. Prior to law school Izza worked with grassroots migration advocacy organizations in Calais, France; Chios, Greece; and remotely across the United States. She is interested in the intersection of migration advocacy and international law. Last summer Izza worked for the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Portland, Maine. At HLS Izza is involved with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic, the Harvard Human Rights Journal, and HLS Advocates for Human Rights. This summer Izza will be working on a strategic advocacy project related to migrants’ rights in Greece with the advocacy team at Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid and with international law experts at the Global Legal Action Network.
Giovanna Garcia – Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid, Greece
Giovanna is a first-year student from Miami, Florida. She holds a B.S. in international affairs and political science from Florida State University. Her academic and professional interests lie in international human rights and humanitarian law with a focus on the intersection of migration and conflict. Before law school, she worked as an English teacher in the northwest of Spain and as a legislative coordinator for Amnesty International USA, where she engaged in grassroots organizing and lobbying efforts around human rights priorities. At HLS, she is involved with the Harvard International Law Journal and the Harvard Immigration Project. This summer, she will be working at Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid in Lesvos, Greece, engaging in advocacy and international strategic litigation work around asylum-seeking.
Luke Haubenstock – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, United Kingdom
Luke is a first-year Harvard Law student from San Francisco. Luke graduated in 2020 from Columbia University and studied philosophy, politics, and economics as a visiting student at the University of Oxford. Before law school, Luke worked at a law firm and assisted with international trade investigations, venture capital financings, and pro bono asylum proceedings for LGBTQ+ individuals from Syria, Venezuela, and Uganda. Before that, Luke interned at the U.S. International Trade Administration in Washington, D.C. and at a law firm in Singapore. Outside of the law, Luke has also spent a year working as a cheesemonger at a local cheese shop, where he introduced guests to roughly 300 types of cheese and taught classes on cheese pairing. This summer, Luke will be working at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, with a focus on the EU’s climate-related financial disclosure rules.
Jacqulyn Kantack – United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, Switzerland
Jacqulyn is a second-year student from Brookings, South Dakota. She holds a B.A. in international relations and an M.A. in human rights, both from the University of Minnesota. Before law school, she worked in the arms division at Human Rights Watch and spent her 1L summer in the national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is interested in the intersection of armed conflict and human rights, primarily in humanitarian disarmament. She will spend the summer at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs in Geneva.
Sukhmani Kaur – Reprieve, United Kingdom
Sukhmani is a first-year student at Harvard Law School. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in government and history and minors in inequality studies and law and society. She is interested in international human rights law and international criminal law, with a particular interest in transitional justice issues. At HLS, Sukhmani is involved in the Harvard Human Rights Journal, HLS Advocates for Human Rights, and the Prison Legal Assistance Program. This summer, she will be working at Reprieve, a legal action NGO in London that focuses on state atrocities around the world. She will be working primarily with their South Asia team on cases that involve the death penalty.
Brandon Martinez – Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Mexico
Brandon is a first-year student from Orange County, California. He graduated from Harvard College with a major in government and a minor in economics. Through the Junior Deferral Program, he worked as a fellow on climate action in the city of Irvine and developed Dreambound, a startup promoting vocational education and economic mobility, and Voters Choose, a non-profit engaging youth leaders in civic education and democracy reform. At Harvard Law, he has been involved with the Labor and Employment Action Project, the Harvard Latin American Law Review, and La Alianza. This summer, he is working with Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, a binational nonprofit helping Mexico-based migrant workers defend labor and employment rights, on strategic litigation, client support, and policy advocacy from Mexico City.
Jacquelene Mwangi – The South Centre, Switzerland
Jacquelene is an S.J.D. Candidate at Harvard Law School. Her interests lie at the intersection of law, technology and innovation theories, and political economy. Her doctoral work centers on the historical and current trends of technological change in Sub-Saharan African societies, and its evolving relationship with transnational rules and institutions, the State, and society. She holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. This summer, she will be working on an intellectual property and digital governance-related project at The South Centre. The South Centre is an intergovernmental organization of developing countries that undertakes research and analysis oriented on various international policy areas that are relevant to the protection and promotion of the development interests of developing countries.
Roop Patel – Reprieve, United Kingdom
Roop is a first-year student from Kentucky, with a B.A. in political science from Centre College. After graduating, Roop worked at the Cincinnati Public Library as an adult education assistant and interned at The Welcome Project at Wave Pool Galleries. As a student at Harvard Law School, Roop is an editor for the Harvard Human Rights Journal and is interested in democratic development more generally. The Chayes Fellowship will take her to Reprieve in London, where she will be working on death penalty appeals cases.
Elizabeth Poulos – Asylum Protection Center, Serbia
Liz is a first-year student from Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from Williams College in 2019 with a B.A. in history, with a specialization in political history and social theory, and a minor in French. After graduating from college, Liz served as an English teaching fellow for the French Ministry of Education, providing English language and cultural programming in two schools in the Parisian banlieue, and conducted asylum interview preparation for refugees in Paris through the American expat NGO Serve the City. Before coming to HLS, Liz pursued a masters in religion, ethics, and politics at Harvard and organized for immigration reform and coordinated asylum protection services at Promise Arizona as a Harvard Presidential Public Service Fellow. This summer, Liz will support the APC/CZA legal team, providing legal services to asylum seekers throughout Serbia.
Olivia Reichwald – Refugee Law Clinic Hamburg, Germany
Olivia is a first-year student from Spartanburg, South Carolina who graduated from Westmont College with a B.A. in political science. Before law school, she interned at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and worked as a legal assistant at a small criminal defense firm in Santa Barbara, California. She has many interests, including criminal justice reform, public defense, prison reform, and refugee rights. This summer, Olivia will be working at the Refugee Law Clinic Hamburg, a legal clinic associated with the University of Hamburg. The Clinic provides free legal advice to refugees regarding the asylum process, family reunification, the Dublin procedure, and securing residence status. Olivia will also provide research assistance to legal faculty on issues of international human rights law and immigration detention procedures in the U.S. and Germany.
Laura Saliy – World Food Programme, Italy
Laura is a first-year student at Harvard Law School from Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Binghamton University with a B.S. in human development. At HLS, Laura is involved in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender and HLS Advocates for Human Rights. This summer, she will be working at the Legal Office of the United Nations World Food Programme, a humanitarian organization which delivers food assistance in emergencies and works with communities to improve nutrition. Laura will conduct research and legal analysis related to the World Food Programme’s operations, predominantly concerning issues of international public law, commercial law, and administrative and employment law.
Lisa Shakhnazaryan – International Energy Agency, France
Lisa is a first-year student at Harvard Law School from Hawthorn Woods, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in economics and in environmental studies, where she assisted hydrological research into sea-surface temperatures on California’s coastline. Prior to law school, she worked at a mediation law firm in Los Angeles, and on international climate, environmental, and energy policy research in Washington, D.C. At HLS, Lisa is a Managing Editor for the Harvard Environmental Law Review, the Vice-President of the Environmental Law Society, and the Vice-President of the Armenian Law Students Association, and is involved with the Harvard International Law Journal and HLS Advocates for Human Rights. She is interested in using law to further domestic and international climate commitments, and to expand global access to clean energy in ways that are just, expedient, and respectful of people and nature. This summer she will be working at the International Energy Agency’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Jake Soria – Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Costa Rica
Jake is a second-year student from Miami, Florida. He graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in international relations and Spanish literature, and a minor in Latin American studies. Jake is passionate about international human rights advocacy and minority rights issues. At Harvard Law School, he is President of HLS Advocates for Human Rights and a student in the International Human Rights Clinic. Before law school, Jake worked as the Pedro Zamora Public Policy Fellow at AIDS United. This summer, he will be working at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica.
Annie Whitney – Equal Rights Beyond Borders, Greece
Annie is a second-year student from North Carolina, with a strong interest in immigration law. She is a graduate of Columbia University, Sciences Po, and the University of Oxford. Since starting law school, she has worked on asylum cases as an intern in Mexico, Turkey, and the U.S. At HLS, she has participated in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and the Crimmigration Clinic and served as co-president of the Harvard Immigration Project. This summer, she will work with Equal Rights Beyond Borders, a refugee rights nonprofit in Kos, Greece.
Sabrina Zhang – International Commission of Jurists, Belgium
Sabrina is a first-year law student from Lexington, Massachusetts. She graduated from Northeastern University with a B.A. in political science and international affairs, with minors in computer science, history, and law and public policy. Before law school, she worked as an immigration paralegal, working closely with families, refugees, and asylum seekers in the Greater Boston area. At Harvard Law School, she is on the staff of the International Law Journal and the Harvard Human Rights Journal, works as a student attorney for HLS Advocates for Human Rights and the Harvard Immigration Project, and serves on the board for HLS Advocates for Human Rights, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, and the Animal Law Society. This summer, Sabrina will be working with the International Commission of Jurists in Belgium on issues of the rule of law and independence of the judiciary.