Summer Fellowships

Schell
Fellowships
Summer Fellowships

Kirby Simon Summer Fellowships

The Schell Center’s Kirby Simon Summer Fellowships, supported by a generous grant from the Robina Foundation, provide funding for Yale students to undertake at least six weeks of human rights work during the summer. They honor Kirby Simon, the son of Professor John Simon, who was a foreign service officer and died in 1995 while serving in Taiwan. In recent years, as many as 20 percent of all first-year law students have received summer funding from the Schell Center for international human rights work.

Kirby Simon Fellowships cover both travel costs and living expenses. Law students interested in applying must complete Part I of the SPIF application (confirming eligibility) followed by the Kirby Simon application. Kirby Simon applicants do not need to apply to SPIF Part II. Law students and undergraduate students in the Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights are both eligible for Kirby Simon Fellowships, and applications from non-graduating Yale Law School students receive priority. Learn more about applying for the Kirby Simon Fellowship below.

Kirby Simon Fellows have worked on a wide variety of issues at non-governmental organizations, international organizations and agencies, and international and foreign courts throughout the world. To see the complete list of summer human rights fellowship placements since 1999, click here. YLS students may view summer fellows’ reports from 2010 to the present. If you would like to see earlier reports, they can be found in the binders in the sitting area outside Jim Silk’s office or you can email schell.law@yale.edu to ask to receive specific reports electronically.

Generally speaking, students have secured positions with international organizations and non-governmental organizations, particularly in the Global South, in the spring term. International courts and criminal tribunals (including the International Criminal Court, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the European Court of Human Rights) and some big NGOs have early deadlines, however, so if those institutions are of interest, please contact Jim Silk or Hope Metcalf soon for more information. And for anyone interested in consulting with Jim or Hope about summer possibilities, consider making an appointment this fall both to get a good start on your search and because our schedules get busy closer to the Summer Fellowship application deadline.

Summer Fellows

Each summer, the Schell Center funds Kirby Simon fellows pursuing human rights work around the world. In 2019, Colombia, Germany, South Africa, Myanmar, and the U.S. were just a few of the countries where 40 Kirby Simon Fellows worked.

In 2019, rising 2L Emanuel Waddell worked at the Helen Suzman Foundation in Johannesburg this summer, researching South African constitutional law and democracy.

Yale senior Hala El Solh spent summer 2019 in Atlanta interning at The Carter Center, where she worked on the Syria Conflict Mapping Project in the Conflict Resolution Program.

Rising 2L Kami Choi was at Amnesty International in London in summer 2019, working in their Strategic Litigation Unit, which supports victims of human rights violations and seeks to achieve systemic change through strategic litigation.

Rising 3L Laith Aqel (left) and 2L Mark Stevens (right) were in San Francisco in summer 2019 working at the Center for Justice & Accountability, which represents victims of human rights abuses in litigation against perpetrators to advance global justice.

Rising 2L Adair Kleinpeter-Ross spent her summer 2019 in Yangon, Myanmar working with IT social enterprise Koe Koe Tech on issues related to maternal mortality and sexual education.

In summer 2019, Yale senior Marwan Safar Jalani was working in the Middle East and North Africa division of the Human Rights Watch headquarters in New York City. His internship focused on researching the Syrian government practices in checkpoints, detention centers and prisons.

Camila Bustos ’21 interned during summer 2019 with the Climate Litigation Network, a project of Urgenda in Amsterdam & London. The network supports strategic litigation around the world to demand greater government action on climate change.

For summer 2019, Yale College junior Ananya Kumar-Banerjee conducted research in London and interned in New York City with the Asian American Writers' Workshop, a literary nonprofit with working with incarcerated writers and local Asian American communities.

Yale junior Danielle Harris worked at the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town, South Africa in summer 2019. She worked on Scalabrini’s legal Advocacy team, helping refugees and migrants both with their cases as well as with adjusting to South African society.

Louise Willocx '19 interned for summer 2019 at Doughty Street Chambers in London, a world-renowned human rights barristers' chambers. She focused on extradition law and the death penalty.

Yale junior Nicholas Ruiz-Huidobro Magdits (left) worked for summer 2019 at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin on the European Commission’s MyHealth project, which aims to improve health care access for refugees and immigrants recently arrived in Europe, with a focus on women and unaccompanied minors.

Sarah Bernardo, Caleb Yong, and Matthew Linsley, all rising 2Ls, were in Strasbourg, France in 2019 working with the Research Division of the European Court of Human Rights, an international tribunal that rules on alleged breaches of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Yale College junior, Brenda Cachay, was in DC in summer 2019 with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an entity whose goal is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere through an individual petition system, monitoring, and training.

Rising 2L Ben Rashkovich (left) was in Tokyo in 2019 working with Human Rights Now, an international NGO with UN special consultative status, on human rights issues across Asia & the world, including media freedom in Japan & Alabama's abortion ban.

David Moon '21 interned at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). David researched how micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) can better advance Sustainable Development Goals and human rights.

Rising 2L Jessica Tueller (right) interned in DC at the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in summer 2019, an NGO that primarily advocates within the Inter-American Human Rights System. Here she is hanging out after work with CEJIL’s other summer interns.

Second-year Yale Law student Neil Alacha spent summer 2019 at the United Nations International Law Commission in Geneva. He was part of the team of Special Rapporteur Dire Tladi, who presented his fourth report and a set of draft conclusions on peremptory norms of international law.

A rising 2L, Ezra Husney worked in Jerusalem for summer 2019 as a law clerk to Hanan Melcer, the Deputy Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court and the Chairman of Israel’s Central Elections Committee.

Applying for the Kirby Simon Summer Fellowship

Applications for the Kirby Simon Fellowship for summer 2021 will be accepted starting at the end of the Fall 2020 Semester. The final deadline for Kirby Simon applications will be in the spring of 2021 and will be announced soon.

Application Instructions: The application instructions for 2020 can be found here. Updated application instructions for 2021 will be posted soon. Students must read the application instructions, which contain detailed information on eligibility, before applying for the Kirby Simon Fellowship.

Application: Download last year's Kirby Simon application. The new Kirby Simon application will be posted during the Fall 2020 Semester.

Before applying, students must meet with Jim Silk or Hope Metcalf. Please use the office hours application on the Inside Page to schedule appointments.

The Schell Center sponsors several panels, workshops, and meetings during the school year to assist students in finding summer projects and to explain the application process.