Two HGSE Students Named as Third Millennium Fellows

The Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies recently announced that two Harvard Graduate School of Education students, Kimberly Fox and Rochelle Johnston, have been named 2005–2006 Third Millennium Fellows. The program provides students with financial support for a one-year placement in a non-profit human rights organization outside the United States.

"We at HGSE are very proud to have had our students win two of the six Millenium Fellowships for Human Rights Studies that were awarded this year," said HGSE Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, Charles Warren Professor of the History of American Education. "Both of our winners will now build on their previous experience--including their time on Appian Way--to help people around the world. They exemplify our dedication to humanitarian service and we are very, very proud of them."

Fox, an Ed.M. candidate in Education Policy and Management, will spend a year working for Sigamos en el Hospital, a pilot program run by the Ministries of Education and Health in Mexico City. This project provides primary and secondary educational services for chronically ill children and literacy courses for the patients' parents. Fox will work to evaluate and expand the program, and will conduct research on the population of children served. She also hopes to use her work to refine Mexican law to better consider the needs of this specific group.

Johnston, an Ed.M. candidate in Risk and Prevention, will be working with UNICEF's Regional Child Protection Unit in Nairobi, Kenya to support advocacy by and on behalf of children affected by violence in Eastern and Southern Africa. Her work will be done within the context of the UN Global Study on Violence against Children.

Both Fox and Johnston will graduate in June and begin their fellowships in July.

The Third Millennium Fellowships are designed to enable students to bring human rights theory and practice together, to make a valuable contribution to human rights, to gain important first-hand experience abroad in the human rights field, and to interact with a network of individuals sharing their commitment to and involvement in human rights work. The principal goal of the fellowships is to strengthen the constituency of talented young people who choose human rights work as a career.

Fellows were selected through a rigorous application process, and final selections were made by the University Committee on Human Rights Studies, subject to the approval of the Provost. The Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies was established as an interdisciplinary faculty committee under the auspices of the Provost to promote communication, coordination and collaboration among Harvard's many human rights initiatives.