BIO of participants

Ievgenia Blazhevska graduates from Yuriy Fed’kovych Chernivtsi National University in 2012 with a degree in Political Science. The sphere of her interests includes foreign policy, human rights, foreign languages, Mass Media. Ievgeniia made acquaintance with different points of view on human rights' interpretation in International Summer Camp for Youth from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Norway, Portugal (2006). July 2007 marked in her life as a new stage because of Summer Camp of Tolerance, organized by the Anne Frank Research Institute. After that she started her scientific research in this field. Her first investigation was dedicated to different ethnic groups in Chernivtsi region and their style of life (2009-2011). At the same time she run on TV program devoted to the same theme. Nowadays she is working at the topic concerning the ways of protection human rights both in Ukraine and Poland (2012).

Alex Cárdenas graduated from Cornell University in 2010 with a degree in Political Science. His academic focus there was immigration policy and history and also studied abroad for a year in Berlin (2009). Alex has a special interest in immigrant detention centers and has worked with different organizations on topics related to ethnic media and politics. After his graduation from Cornell, Alex spent a year in Washington, D.C. working at White & Case LLP, where he was a Legal Assistant in the International Arbitration practice group. Alex is currently finishing a public affairs fellowship in San Francisco, CA with the Coro Fellows Program.

A History major at Swarthmore College, Daniel has been deeply committed to the cause of education and its relation to homelessness throughout high school and his time at Swarthmore. During his sophomore summer back home in North Dakota, he developed a debate program “Speak Up” to address the absence of debate programs among Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) funded schools. That summer the experience of bringing a small, but hopeful idea into fruition helped him to discover a future career in education reform. On campus, Daniel is the founder and President of the Swarthmore chapter of the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia, the second student-run shelter in the nation. Ultimately, with a Juris Doctorate, Daniel wants to make a difference in the American public school system as a civil rights attorney.

Anna Duensing is a rising senior at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. She studies history, memory, and education with a minor in German. Recent areas of her research include narratives of freedom, patriotism, and justice in American wartime blues music and the role of personal narrative in public commemoration at sites of mass violence. Anna participated in a performance art exhibition at the Guggenheim, interned with the Oral History Department of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, and currently volunteers with the College Group at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also works as an educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and serves as Program Director at WNYU 89.1 FM, where she hosts a blues and folk music show as well. She is president of the Gallatin Cinema Society and is currently editing a documentary she directed about an art gallery on the Lower East Side. 

Andrew Dusek graduated from The University of Montana in 2010 with degrees in journalism and political science, and minors in history and international development studies. He focused on international human rights, peacebuilding and security issues, and studied the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland during an honors study abroad program. Since graduation, Andrew has conducted research on genocide prevention for the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in cooperation with The International Conference for the Great Lakes Region in Burundi. He has also served on international delegations focused on conflict resolution and genocide prevention in Rwanda, the Balkans, and Cambodia. Andrew recently returned from the Thai-Burma border where he spent several months working with Shan refugees and performing human rights-related research and documentation.

Sarah Grunberg graduated from Ithaca College in 2008 with a degree in Culture and Communication with a focus on Media and Cultural Studies. She also completed minors in Spanish, Environmental Studies and Sociology. Shortly after graduation she moved to Warsaw, Poland to pursue her Masters in Sociology at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences (2009). She has since become a PhD candidate at this institution, studying the individual and family identities of Polish-African families in Poland. She has presented at a number of international conferences based on her research ranging from the collective memories of Solidarity children in Poland to the challenges to cosmopolitanism in racially homogenous societies.

Melanie Hudler is an undergraduate of the University of Vienna, Austria, with a degree in Transcultural Communication. She studied Romanian Language and Culture at the University of Bucharest as an Erasmus student for one semester. 

Since October 2011, she is a M.A. candidate in literary studies (German and English) and history at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, where she focuses on intercultural communication, anti-discrimination activities, critical whiteness and gender studies. She writes critical articles for the weekly campus newspaper concentrating on socio-political topics and is active in the university group of the German Social Democratic Party youth organisation, especially in the area of informing about right-wing extremism in Germany. Melanie has been involved in several different social projects in Romania, Austria and Germany. After school, she has worked as a volunteer in orphanages in Braşov/Romania. During her time in Vienna, she has worked with asylum applicants and gave German language courses. At the moment, she is doing a traineeship at a local newspaper in her hometown.

Paulina Kasprowicz is a candidate for a bachelor degree in International Relations at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. Paulina is a devotee of experiencing new cultures and is an incorrigible believer in humans and animals. Mostly, focused on political science, human and animal rights and eastern studies.She attended a Quaker School - Olney Friends School in the United States, and was involved in social projects which have influenced the current point of view on the world's matters. During the summer of 2011, Paulina had a possibility of completing an internship in Azerbaijan in The Academy of Public Administration under the President of Republic of Azerbaijan and also in The Municipality of Baku, where she had a chance to be involved in women's rights projects.

Simmi Kaur is currently junior at Hunter College, part of the Macaulay Honors program. She is a Political Science and Media Studies double major and minoring in Human Rights. Simmi discovered her interest in human rights early on, and has constantly looked for opportunities to further develop this interest. She has interned at Coalition for the Homeless, working with and learning from those who lack access to the rights we consider most fundamental: housing, food, and safety, among others. Simmi has also worked with CyberDissidents.org, an organization committed to protecting freedom of speech and raising awareness about activists around the world who face severe punishment, sometimes even death, simply for criticizing their governments. Currently, Simmi is teaching with PreProBono, a non-profit that provides low-cost/free LSAT prep to students who could otherwise not afford it. Simmi aspires to be a human rights lawyer, focusing on issues dealing with women's rights specifically. She also hopes to eventually obtain a graduate level degree in Political Theory, because she believes herself to be a political theorist at heart. Simmi also loves to read, travel and argue over politics with her father.

Natalia Kotwica graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań in 2012 with a degree in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. The second generation of German-Turkish women become the subject of her MA thesis. She is deeply interested in Germany as a country of immigration. Hence she lived two years in München, Schweinfurt and Würzburg. Studying, working, meeting with people, doing own research have learned her something about herself and others. During that time, Natalia participated also in Erasmus Exchange Programme in München. Actually she is focused on migration studies, minority rights and antidiscrimination policy. Main point of this is situation of Turks in Germany. In the future she would have to build “bridges” between the cultures. She thinks: Germans, Poles, Turks, Christians, Muslims and others should not forget, that first of all we are all humans, secondly we belong to our national or religious community. In her opinion, equality in diversity, non-discrimination and non-violence are urgent questions.

Maira Kusch graduated from Chemnitz University of Technology in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in European Studies. Since then she has been enrolled in the Master’s programme “International Studies/Peace and Conflict Research” at Goethe University Frankfurt/Main. The focus of her studies has been mainly on climate and energy policy, peace studies and the EU’s external relations policies. After graduation from school, Maira spent a high school year in the US as participant of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange of the German Bundestag and the US Congress. In 2008 she also spent a semester abroad in France. Besides her studies, Maira has been actively involved in various student and youth initiatives, where she, for instance, demonstrated the EU’s role, as well as the importance of the European integration and intercultural cooperation, in the everyday lives of Europeans through free workshops and information sessions at schools and youth clubs in Germany. In her spare time Maira especially enjoys traveling, reading and doing all kinds of sports. Currently she is completing an internship at the Representation of the Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to the EU in Brussels.

Kamil Mamak is studying Law at the Jagiellonian University. He focused on criminal law, criminal procedure and human rights. He is “ambassador” of the Office of the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection at his university. He also works voluntary in the local department of the Office of the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection in Krakow. Kamil is a member of the Law Clinic at the Jagiellonian University – Section of Criminal Law. He completed an internships in the Office of the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection in Warsaw (2010) and in the Helsinki Foundation for Human Right in Law Department (2011). Kamil is the head of Criminal Procedure Section in the scientific organization – Association of Law Students’ Library of the Jagiellonian University. He attended scientific conferences concerning criminal law, where he delivered papers. Kamil is a member of editorial committee in “the Internet Law Review”.

Milena Opper is attending Medical School at Goethe University Frankfurt. In September 2011, she passed the preliminary medical examination and is now focusing on Internal Medicine. Before starting Medical Studies, Milena spent one year in Berlin studying Philosophy at Humboldt-University majoring in Political Philosophy and Applied Logic. In the context of being a "German Scholarship" Scholar, Milena is working in a project investigating the phenomenon of the increasing violence in society using the example of football and contriving ways and means to contain the risk of further escalation.

Nadiya Popadyuk Having graduated with distinction from the Law Faculty of the Transcarpathian State University and the Faculty of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration under the Office of the President of Ukraine Nadiya Popadyuk carrier has been closely connected with politics and legislature on the governmental level. She is a professional political adviser and an expert in public administration and the European integration. She became a winner of international professional competitions and internships: the Legislative Fellows Program (LFP), the New Generation Leaders’ Winter School, International Academy for Leadership (IAF), The Polish Forum of Young Diplomats, the American Institute on Political and Economic Systems (AIPES). She has been working for Ukrainian Parliament and for the highest Executive bodies as well as take part in public activities. In 2006 she was elected for the post of the Chairman of the Youth Section of the Transcarpathian Professional Women-Educators’ Association “Perspektyva” and in 2009 – for the post of Chairman of the Transcarpathian Regional Organization of the All-Ukrainian Youth NGO European Youth Movement. Within these NGOs she initiated holding international Summer Schools, seminars, conferences for young leaders aimed at promotion of democratic values, tolerance and citizens' participation. In 2012 she has been invited to participate in a “Young Leaders Political Training” - transatlantic networking and training opportunity organized by Copenhagen’s Mayor for Integration, the Danish-Ethnic Youth Council and the U.S. State Department at Copenhagen City Hall.

Maryna Rabinovych is a second-year law-student of Odessa National University. She focuses on human rights protection (especially in the sphere of health protection and bioethics) and EU law. Now Maryna works at researching in the access to right to health by the Vulnerable in Ukraine and foreign countries. Meanwhile, she is completing an internship in Odessa oblast administration and volunteering in Ukrainian Helsinki HUman Rights Union as a legal counsellor. Maryna's social activities lie in conducting a multifaceted social project "Share Shine in Your Eyes', which is aimed at helping physically and mentally challenged inmates of Odessa boarding schools. The project embraces fundraising, education&communication and information branches and has already benefited to the members of target groups.

Andrea Cristina Ruiz recently graduated from the George Washington University with a dual degree in Economics and International Affairs concentrating in International Economic Development and Latin America. Her inspiration came from her experience as founder of Global Youth Initiative, an organization dedicated to increasing quality of education through literacy and youth to youth engagement. Global Youth Initiative has started 12 libraries in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama. Her organization has received funding from Ashoka’s Youth Venture, Nestle Very Best in Youth, and was featured at the Clinton Global Initiative University Conference. Another spark came from the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellowship Initiative, a fellowship that brings students from the US, Europe, and Central Asia together to discuss issues facing their countries and foster youth civic diplomacy and activism. Andrea Ruiz also participated in programs with People to People International including the Global Youth Forum and a study trip to Japan. Andrea has since spent her spare time with her organization and interning at several institutions that work in International Development such as the Ashoka, The Organization of American States, the Institute for International Economic Policy, and The Ecuadorean government. Andrea has researched political movements and their effects on indigenous, women, and other ethnic minorities. Her thesis focused on income wage differences of indigenous populations in Ecuador and was featured in the George Washington Universities Research day Symposium. Andrea likes to run half marathons and is very close to earning her black belt in Shoto-Kan Karate through the Japanese Karate Association.

Allen Sanchez graduated from Yale University with a degree in American Studies and a concentration in “The International United States.” Throughout college, Allen directed a mentoring program for inner city youth, coached a youth water polo team, and started a campaign to reform investment ethics at Yale. During his summers he worked as a labor union organizer in the hotel and hospitality industry in Los Angeles, and as a community organizer in the warehousing and logistics industry in the Inland Empire in Southern California. After university, Allen took his experiences abroad where he currently works as a secondary school social studies and history teacher at an international school in Seoul, South Korea. He is also a volleyball coach, student government adviser and an adviser to several on-campus North Korean human rights clubs. He is also active with Seoul-based North Korean human rights organizations.

Olena Sholomei graduated from the Petro Mohyla Mykolaiv State University in 2010 with the bachelor degree in political science. During her studying she had been working as a journalist in the University Newspaper. Moreover, she occupied a position of the political analyst in the online-magazine simultaneously. Olena participated in the DAAD Program "Democracy for Ukraine" in Germany (2010); then she studied German language in Saarland University, Germany (2011). By this time she writes a diploma work for the master degree in political science at the Petro Mohyla Mykolaiv State University. In the subsequent year she is continuing studying in the field of political communications at the Free University of Berlin.

Antoni Teodorczyk graduated from Collegium Civitas in 2011 with a degree in International Relations - Diplomacy. He focused on foreign policy, human rights, and issue of failed states and their geopolitical implications, and the role of UN and other international organizations in solving this problem.

Iuliia Zemlytska received her degree in law from National Law Academy of Ukraine, named after Yaroslav the Wise (2011). During her student years she was actively involved with Student Government (2008-2009), Youth NGO "Debate Academy" (2008-2010) , FLEX Alumni network (2006- present) and a few other youth initiatives. Since 2008 Yuliya is an active member of European Youth Parliament -Ukraine (EYP), she attended and organized a few sessions of EYP. After serving as a FLEX Alumni coordinator in Eastern Ukraine (2010), Yuliya participated in Parliamentary Development Program and conducted an internship at the Committee on legal policy at the Ukrainian Parliament, where she was involved in the preparation of a few laws of constitutional importance (2010-2011). Yuliya gained valuable experience in the corporate sector as an in-house legal intern at Microsoft (2011), before she departed to go to Netherlands, where she is currently studying public international law at Leiden University.