For the Global Good

Eye on India

"You step off the plane and it's chaos immediately," says Michael Kibbe, '09, of Mumbai, India, where he worked as an economic and political intern for the U.S. Consulate. "There's rubble everywhere, people sleeping and animals wandering in the streets. Overwhelming is almost an understatement."

Kibbe's interest in working for the U.S. government overseas, specifically Pakistan and India, came to fruition during a previous spring internship at the State Department in Washington, D.C. while working in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. His colleagues at the department described Mumbai as one of the most difficult cities to acclimate to — especially for someone who has never traveled outside the United States.

"If you want to do this type of work, you're going to live in some pretty nasty and dangerous places," he explains. "If you're not prepared to live here, Mumbai will take you down fast. I looked at the experience as a challenge and as an adventure. It was a mad rush."

At the consulate, Kibbe contributed to several reports on violent protests and acts of terrorism that occurred throughout western India during the summer. More than 1,000 people in India died from bombings, which were perpetrated by various fundamentalist groups aiming to spark violence between the Muslim and Hindu populations. A major security threat also exists within the interior of the country, where separatist insurgent forces actively recruit villagers to install a Maoist form of government.

"We are the eyes and ears for the government in that area," Kibbe explains. "How the Indian government responds to terrorist attacks and insurgent bombings and how to prepare in case the city is hit are top priorities for both the U.S. and Indian governments."

In addition to reporting, Kibbe was also responsible for investigating a new project to redevelop the Mumbai slums, specifically Dharavi, one of the most poverty-stricken areas in Asia. The project aims to do more than just rebuild the dilapidated area; the goal is to view the residents as economic resources, educating and training them with job skills.

In addition to working with the U.S. architect who designed the redevelopment plan, Kibbe consulted Indian government officials and various non-governmental organizations working within the slums to ascertain the political environment, the program's potential challenges and how corruption and political instability might stifle the project.

By working at the consulate in Mumbai, Kibbe explains that he gained an invaluable understanding of the observational role the U.S. government plays in foreign affairs as well as real-world knowledge of how laws and U.S. foreign policy play out in people's everyday lives.

"I learned the importance of not just having laws on the books but having the rule of law," he says. "The law means something other than words."

The fellowship was one of the most exciting experiences of Kibbe's life. "People in Mumbai helped you on the streets and were so accommodating," he says. "In an overcrowded city of 25 million people, it was truly amazing how friendly and gracious the people were."

Kibbe explains that participating in a U.S. mission overseas was inspiring and that it was fascinating to watch the everyday aspects of foreign policy in motion.

"It makes you feel like you're doing something for the greater good," he says. "But you have to put aside your comforts and be willing to dive into the mud!"

Spanish Lessons

For Ryan Kaiser, '10, embarking on a fellowship in southern Spain felt like a homecoming. As a teenager, he lived in Spain for two years and acquired a taste for international issues back then.

As an undergraduate, Kaiser studied both Latin American and international studies. His strong inter-national background, coupled with his command of Spanish, primed him for a fellowship with La Fundación Gota de Leche, an independent foundation sponsored by the Spanish government that helps at-risk children.

The fellowship began in Seville where he worked closely with the impoverished Gypsy population, implementing programs such as vocational rehabilitation, nutritional reform for children and educational workshops for women.

"The foundation's mission is to provide children a safe haven and a good start at life through educational reform," he explains. "The Gypsy population is underprivileged and impoverished. Their lifestyle is very alternative, so educational reform begins at a grassroots level — it's as basic as helping the schools serve breakfast."

After working with the Gypsies in the educational centers, Kaiser moved to a Spanish government office in Seville to research mistreatment complaints of underage immigrants and other illegal practices at government education centers.

"Spain has a problem with North Africans crossing its borders," he explains. "These immigrants can't work legally and don't have steady incomes, which often forces them into extreme poverty."

Many of the adults wind up living in shantytowns, makeshift neighborhoods with homes created from trailers, sheets of metal and wood and furnished with items found on the streets. "They steal electricity and water," he says. "And in those conditions, children are often mistreated."

Those experiences exposed Kaiser to several Spanish immigrant populations and broadened his perspective of international law.

"Now I can compare and contrast Spanish and American immigration law, and how both governments react to the issues immigrants face," he says. "This experience has given me a much deeper perspective of both immigration and international law."

After spending several weeks in Seville, Kaiser moved south to Málaga, a port city on the Mediterranean coast, where he interned with a technological innovation firm. The program aims to create a knowledge-based educational system that would allow juvenile centers in Costa Rica and Central America to better prepare juvenile offenders to re-enter society.

"I'm very interested in children's rights and more broadly human rights," Kaiser offers. "I want to continue working in public service and plan to work in legal clinics doing child advocacy."

He loves experiencing the legal system from the perspective of different countries. "Given the opportunity I'd jump right back on a plane," says Kaiser, who currently serves as president of the International Law Students' Association.

South America, Chile, Costa Rica, all call his name. And don't be surprised at graduation if Kaiser holds his diploma in one hand and a plane ticket in the other.

Teaching in Thailand

Claudia Mallon, '10, has always possessed a strong interest in international law, but she was eager for the opportunity to live the law rather than to study it.

The summer before she began law school, Mallon worked in the state's attorney's office in Chicago, but she wanted her next fellowship to be "something more than just working in an office." So, she went halfway around the world to find a new "office" at Bridges Across Borders in Thailand.

She was drawn to Bridges Across Borders because it offered both a service component and a great legal experience. Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia is an international grassroots organization that unites people to overcome poverty, injustice and inequity in Southeast Asia by raising global awareness about the area's pressing issues. The program supports local struggles for social justice, equitable development and the protection of human rights by teaching creative, non-violent methods of resolving conflict and redressing injustice.

"The program has a holistic approach to human rights," she says. "I volunteered in women's prisons, schools and an orphanage and helped teach monks."

Mallon gained valuable legal experience by laying the groundwork for Asian universities to establish legal clinics in Southeast Asia. The Community Legal Education program teaches law at various community settings while growing its existing in-house consultation clinic center. Students teach the law to the less educated, including female prisoners, juvenile offenders and people living poverty.

The clinics aim to provide legal education to the community, and Mallon and other volunteers wrote the manuals for the clinic's legal education efforts. Mallon handled the Thai criminal code, always careful not to impose her understanding of Western criminal law onto the Thai code. In a truly international collaboration, a volunteer lawyer from London edited their work, and Thai law students made sure the translations were accurate.

While adjusting to life in Thailand was easier than she thought, the immersion week spent living with a Thai family proved more problematic. Mallon doesn't speak Thai and communicating with her family was very difficult. "There was lots of pointing and miming," she admits.

But the service aspects of her fellowship were so rewarding that the language barrier proved only a minor frustration.

Mallon is already looking into another international internship next summer to continue her interest in international law and human rights issues. She also recently wrote a seminar paper on special issues in international aid organizations.

Mallon explains that when she graduates she will face tough choices as she tries to balance law school debt with her desire to work for a non-governmental organization.

"This fellowship gave me invaluable insight into how to analyze a non-governmental organization to ensure it's a strong, stable organization," she says. "My experience at Bridges Across Borders has given me the foundation to continue building a career that I love."

Connecting in the Campos

Some students start law school knowing exactly what they want to do with their degree. Emily Hanson, '10, is one of those students.

Hanson came to law school with the goal of working as an immigration lawyer in the United States, but her fellowship as a public-service coordinator for the Institute for Latin American Concern in the Dominican Republic opened her eyes to immigration law on an international level.

"Eventually, I would love the oppor-tunity to work in the Caribbean on immigration issues concerning that region," she says.

The Institute for Latin American Concern is an international Catholic organization that provides medical, educational and economic development programs to underprivileged people in rural areas of Santiago.

Hanson served as the coordinator of many of the institute's public-service projects, which ranged from building a new school to overseeing educational programs on sustainable housing to teaching job training skills. She also was a translator and liaison between the students and their host families.

The isolation of the campos can be alarming for Americans. People generally don't travel anywhere they can't walk, and rainstorms often cause rivers and streams to overflow, cutting off the rural communities from the larger towns.

Hanson says she was struck by how the campo communities graciously accepted the volunteers. "Our host families immediately accepted us as sons and daughters — the Dominican culture is very welcoming," she says. "It was amazing how the students, despite language barriers, connected, communicated and developed strong bonds with their host families."

While the graciousness of the Dominican culture offered a wonderful cultural experience, witnessing the living and working conditions of the immigrants gave Hanson a disturbing look at the human rights violations and unfair labor practices that occur in less developed countries.

She learned about these violations firsthand at the hospital, banana plantation and sprinkler factory she toured. "People should not be treated like criminals and be forced to live in appalling conditions," she explains. "Everyone should have the opportunity to become a citizen."

The lack of business regulation in the Dominican Republic often results in unfair wages, horrible working conditions and frequent border raids. "Undocumented Haitians work the undesirable jobs and have poor living conditions," Hanson explains. "Families live in houses made out of cardboard and tin. There's no sewer system and limited access to clean water. Children have to walk at least three miles to school everyday. It's a very difficult way of life."

The eyewitness accounts and the realization that the pervasiveness and severity of human rights violations and unfair labor practices are even more extreme in underdeveloped countries left a profound impression on Hanson. The fellowship allowed her to discern parallels between the Dominican Republic's immigration situation and that of the United States.

"In less developed countries the working and living conditions are much worse, and there's more discrimination than what we see in the United States," she explains.

"This fellowship renewed my dedication to human rights work and elevated my interest in immigration law to an international level."

The public-service fellowship also provided some much-needed perspective. "When I get bogged down with going to class, searching for a job and start stressing myself out," she explains, "I remember my summer experience and realize the reason I am in law school."

Out of Africa

Katherine Mortensen, '10, is not a novice traveler by any means. But never before had she heard a lawyer refer to a magistrate as "your worship" or heard members of a racially diverse population refer to themselves as "colored." During her fellowship at the Legal Aid Board of Durban, South Africa, Mortensen witnessed both.

But embracing these cultural differ-ences were exactly what she was looking for in a fellowship. "I wanted an opportunity to go outside my comfort zone and live in a different country and work in public

service," she says.

Mortensen's legal work took her to the remote area of Lesotho, where there is no electricity or running water and no exposure to Western life. "They were shepherds and farmed all of their own food," she says. "It was unreal. Seeing that kind of poverty was profound considering many poor Americans still have refrigerators and

cable TV."

Mortensen's work at the Legal Aid Board was split between civil and criminal cases. During the criminal work, she focused on appeals and mitigation of sentences for convicted offenders. Her work ranged from reviewing personal histories and analyzing details of the crime to constructing arguments aimed at reducing maximum sentences to visiting the accused in prison.

The civil work included researching medical malpractice, landlord/tenant, negligence and child custody cases. Mortensen researched relevant law through online and print resources and drafted theories of the cases. She also analyzed transcripts, judgments and depositions to find inconsistencies and theories of appeal.

"Research was difficult because South African law is not as clearly available as U.S. law," she explains. "In America, we would just look up ‘elements of negligence', but in South Africa it was difficult to pin down the prima facie elements of many of the cases."

Mortensen was particularly interested in the South African Constitution because "it is much longer and much more inclusive than ours — and it guarantees housing."

The constitutional "right to housing" was the crux of one of her cases. She brought an action against a landlord by arguing that a tenant cannot be evicted under the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act, which goes into effect when there are no other reasonable housing alternatives available for the individual.

"I was surprised that I was given so much responsibility and how capable I felt," she says. "It was my first real legal experience, and it was strange to think I had these people's fate in my hands."

Mortensen reports that her biggest success story was reducing a sentence from the mandatory 15-year minimum down to 10 years because of mitigating circumstances.

"While I could not argue the case, I did all of the legwork used in court," she says. "The sense of pride was just amazing."

Mortensen hopes to continue public service work by focusing on sustainable urban development and environmental law. "I would love to work in an area of law that addresses housing issues and problems," she says. "I want to feel like I'm helping my community and making a difference."