Nineteen Harvard Law School students have been awarded the 2015 Chayes International Public Service Fellowship this summer. They are working abroad in China, Colombia, France, Ghana, India, Kenya, Myanmar, Namibia, Palestine, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Uganda, and the United Kingdom, as well as in Washington, DC. Read the 2015 Chayes Fellows Biographies.
Tag Archives: Summer Abroad
Summer International Travel Info Sessions: April 14 + 17, 12-1:30 pm
2014 Chayes International Public Service Fellowships: Photo Gallery
View a slideshow with images and quotes from recent Chayes Fellows, who traveled to Colombia, France, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Phillippines, South Africa, and Uganda this past summer.
Chayes Fellow Elizabeth Loftus on working with World Bank Integrity Vice-Presidency in Washington, DC
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Loftus
I am loving my time at the World Bank; it is incredibly rewarding to be using my (partial) law degree to do substantive work that I care so much about.
Throughout the summer, I have had a wide variety of projects, ranging from policy research to investigations to editing statements of accusation and evidence. I am currently working on drafting my own statement of accusation and evidence from an investigation that is entirely in French (which is challenging but exciting). Serendipitously, the two policy topics I was assigned to research exactly matched my corruption-related academic interests.
The World Bank’s work environment is fantastic. One of the reasons I applied to INT was because I wanted to get a sense of what it is like to work in a professional, international setting. I feel like I have obtained exactly the sort of insight I was hoping for. I can walk around the office and hear conversations in four different languages and I’ve learned a lot about the legal cultures of different jurisdictions. My experience here has confirmed that I really derive a lot of energy from working in an international atmosphere. As a result, I’ve thought a lot about what I want to do with the remainder of my time at HLS.
Like the attorneys and investigators, the interns come from all over the world (Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Germany, China, Afghanistan) and I’ve learned as much from them as I have from INT staff.
Elizabeth is one of 22 HLS students working this summer in 14 countries under the auspices of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship. Please visit our Chayes Fellowship page to learn more!
Chayes Fellow Katie King on working with Equal Education Law Centre in South Africa
Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, Bo-Kaap district in Cape Town. Photos courtesy of Katie King.
My internship has been fantastic so far. The office environment is great, and right off the bat my supervisor gave me a plan for what I’d be working on the whole summer, which was wonderful–I knew immediately that I’d get to do substantive work. I just completed a memo on school overcrowding and gave my presentation on it yesterday. Next I’ll be starting a memo on either gangs in schools or how to provide education to refugee children. I also had a chance to attend a parents’ training camp this past weekend which was run by Equal Education, the mother organization of the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC). The weekend was both inspiring and challenging–seeing how skilled and passionate the parents were about advocating for their children’s education was a reminder of the potential for change, but seeing how many people wanted to talk to us about what their rights were was an equally powerful reminder of how much need there is for us to make people aware of the law and what the EELC is doing.
Outside of work, I’ve had an amazing time familiarizing myself with Cape Town and South Africa so far. The proximity of stark inequalities is unavoidable (and has led to some good conversation), but I’ve also never been to a city which has such incredible natural beauty built into the middle of it…and the food is fantastic. I’ve been wanting to come to South Africa for so long that sometimes it’s hard to believe I’m finally here. I’m definitely working hard to make the most of it.
Katie is one of 22 HLS students working this summer in 14 countries under the auspices of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship. Please visit our Chayes Fellowship page to learn more!