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Annual International Summer Fellowship Opportunity

Dear Fellowships Coordinator,

I am a Smith College alum (Class of 2001), and I am writing to alert you to a fantastic international summer Fellowship opportunity for Smith students. I was a Fellow on the Humanity In Action (HIA) program in 2001, and it was one of the most intellectually challenging and personally rewarding experiences of my life.

Through its programs, HIA seeks to nurture an international and intergenerational community of people committed to protecting minorities and improving human rights. Each summer, HIA funds thirty American students to participate in six-week educational programs that run concurrently in Copenhagen, Berlin and Amsterdam.

These programs give fellows an unparalleled look at historical and contemporary human rights and minority rights issues in Europe. Ten Americans team with ten Dutch, Danish or German students in each country, and spend a month attending classes on holocaust history, refugee issues, multiculturalism, pluralism, and other human rights and minority rights issues.

Presenters in each country include prominent leaders in Government, NGO's, philanthropists, journalists, and scientists. At the end of the programs, teams of Fellows write and present reports on minority issues in the three European host countries and do independent follow-up projects in their home countries which the Fellows design themselves. The reports are later published by HIA, and all program costs for the Fellowship are covered by HIA.

If Fellows successfully complete the program and choose to continue their involvement with the HIA community, there are many wonderful post-Fellowship opportunities and internships available as well.

HIA works with a consortium of American and European universities and in cooperation with the EPIIC program at Tufts University and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. HIA Board members include Mary Maples Dunn, Daniel Goldhagen, Peter Schuck, and Samantha Power.

I know you may be ensconced in course preparation for next semester, but please take the time to forward this on to other faculty members, and, most importantly, to talented students in any discipline - whom you think might be good candidates for the program. We encourage anyone with a passion for the issues we address to apply, as we seek a diverse group of applicants who can lend unique perspectives to often intense and rigorous discussions. The program covers thought-provoking subject matter and has a very demanding schedule, and students are often in situations with very high-level figures in the global human rights and political arena. Therefore, we are looking for students who are intelligent, engaging, emotionally mature, and able to negotiate the difficult and sometimes very personal challenges that come up on such a program.

The application deadline is in February.

Applications may be downloaded from the website http://www.humanityinaction.org, where you can also find a great deal of additional information. I would be happy to answer any questions you or your students might have. Please feel free to contact me by email or phone.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from a great pool of Smith applicants this year!

Sincerely,

Molly Curren '01
mollycaitlin@hotmail.com
(617) 783-4163

Molly Curren Bio:

I graduated cum laude from Smith in 2001 with a major in Religion and Biblical Literature and a self-designed minor in Holocaust Studies. I took part in the HIA fellowship in Holland during the summer of 2001. I am currently Coordinator for the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies, and I am a member of both the Selection Committee and the Advisory Board of Humanity in Action.

From a 2003 Fellow: I needed two letters of recommendation, and I had to write two essays and send a resume and transcript for the application. All the short listed candidates went through a phone interview conducted by someone from HIA's board of directors.