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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 admission dates of December 1 for Spring term submissions, and April 1 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
Daya is a rising senior at Columbia College studying Human Rights with a concentration in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. With a mixed background of Indian, Israeli, Moroccan, and Kurdish Iraqi heritage, Daya is interested in studying and working on issues of conflict and migration. She is spending this summer interning at the International Rescue Committee in New York as an Adult Education Administrative Assistant.
Alexandra Kirk will graduate from Columbia College in May 2023 with majors in Human Rights and History. In addition to her study of student activism and decolonization in the context of world history, Alexandra’s research in human rights focussed on immigration law, disability rights, and education. During the 2021-2022 academic year, Alexandra was a Research Fellow for the ISHR and helped to organize the Mobilities Conference, aimed at creating resources for asylum seekers with disabilities and their legal advocates. Alexandra’s capstone project in human rights built on her prior research to explore existing educational supports and persistent challenges for Syrian children with disabilities living in Jordan’s Za’atari Refugee Camp.
Alexandra is deeply passionate about educational equity and worked closely with non-profit organizations Meet Me at the Museum, the Double Discovery Center, and Matriculate to promote access to the arts and higher education for low-income students across New York City. Prior to attending law school, Alexandra will work as a paralegal at the Appeals Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where she hopes to continue learning about opportunities to strengthen human rights within the criminal justice system.
Victoria Mueller (she/her) is a senior at Columbia University, majoring in Human Rights, concentrating in Sociology, and specializing in German. Her work focuses on how both international law and local community organizations can achieve increased respect for refugee, immigrant, and women’s rights. After graduation, she will work at a think tank in Geneva, Switzerland, conducting migration and human rights policy research. She plans to attend law school to become an immigration/human rights attorney.
Claire Marie Ellis will graduate from Columbia College in May 2023 with a major in Human Rights, a specialization in Women’s and Gender Studies, and a concentration in English and Comparative Literature. Her academic research centers on asylum claims from gender-based violence survivors, which she has investigated through the work of NGOs in the United States, France, and Switzerland. As a bilingual descendant of Cuban refugees, Claire has volunteered at various New York–based nonprofits such as Sanctuary for Families, The Brave House of the Urban Justice Center, and National Advocates for Pregnant Women. Most recently, Claire clerked for a judge in the Civil Court of New York City and has since developed a passion for labor rights and consumer-debt fairness policy. With hopes to dismantle gender-based forms of socio-economic oppression as they particularly impact migrant and immigrant workers, Claire plans to engage in more human rights activism abroad in the near future and then pursue a JD back in the states.
Megan Lunny is a junior in Columbia College double-majoring in English and Human Rights, with a specialization in History. She is also a Saltzman Student Scholar for Peace. Her interest in the intersection of human rights and nuclear disarmament began with a summer research trip to Tahiti, Mangareva, and Paris as a Global Scholar, where her research centered on compensation for Polynesian victims of French nuclear testing. Her Myra Kraft Prize has supported her work as an intern for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation since the summer of 2022, including attending the United Nations Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference and United Nations General Assembly First Committee in fall 2022, working on disarmament-related interventions by H.E. Tito of Kiribati, and co-authoring international youth statements on disarmament.
Juls Marino graduated from Columbia University in May 2022 with a degree in Human Rights and a specialization in Information Sciences. Their coursework focused on cultural rights and Third World approaches to international law. Their senior capstone, “Crypto-Colonialism: How Digital Currencies Reify Colonial Power and Threaten Human Rights in the Global South and Beyond”, provided a materialist analysis of the impact of proof-of-work mechanisms on Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination. Currently, Juls is on the communications team at Inclusive Development International, an organization dedicated to corporate accountability in the face of harmful development projects and land grabs. In their free time, Juls organizes with Anakbayan—a group that fights for genuine democracy and national liberation in the Philippines from a socialist perspective.
