Kirby Simon Fellow Spotlight: Elsie Mares ’28 at Centro de los Derechos Migrante  

Elsie Mares ’28 hoped to be a Kirby Simon Summer Fellow before she ever set foot on Yale Law School’s campus.

“It’s honestly one of the biggest things that drew me to YLS,” she said. 

This summer, the fellowship placed her in Mexico City with the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (CDM), assisting with legal services for migrant workers.

The Kirby Simon Summer Fellowship is part of the Orville H. Schell Jr. Center for International Human Rights and supported by the Robina Foundation. It funds Yale Law School students like Mares to spend at least six weeks engaging in human rights internships or research at international organizations and agencies, non-governmental organizations, and courts around the world. Mares is one of 16 Yale Law School students who received Kirby Simon Fellowships this summer.

She came to the Law School with her sights set on public international human rights law long term. During her undergraduate studies at Loyola Marymount University, Mares focused on migration management and humanitarian response. She then spent several years in the peacebuilding sector, including as a Scoville Peace Fellow.

“I viewed this summer as the opportunity to revisit my roots from a legal lens and really work on the issues that I have a lot of personal familiarity and passion for,” she said.

Mares said working with lawyers at Centro de los Derechos del Migrante has given her the chance to see what her future career paths might look like. She also believes firsthand exposure to some of the field's challenges is preparing her to become a practitioner. She cites that cross-border litigation at the organization adds a layer of complexity. Clients scattered across Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, working under different U.S. state laws and immigration statuses, often with little knowledge of the legal system they're navigating. 

“I'm really glad to have understood and confronted this challenge in this work, because I think it's going to just make me a better lawyer in the future,” she said.

Beyond exposure to casework, Mares is learning about effective approaches to advocacy and outreach — a strategy she is eager to explore in her future studies. She is preparing to join an outreach trip to a small town eight hours from Mexico City known for aggressive recruiting by employers with histories of wage theft and labor violations. 

“I'm super interested in how to expand the resources for the preventative work that empowers people before they've been wronged,” she said.

Mares hopes other students interested in human rights will pursue the Kirby Simon Fellowship. When much of the human rights work available to law students is unpaid, having fellowship funding opens more opportunities, she explained.

“The Kirby Simon really enables you to be creative and bold in what you explore,” Mares said.

This fall, Mares joins the Schell Center as a student director for the 2026–2027 academic year, alongside fellow Kirby Simon Fellow Max Pushkin.

Visit the Schell Center’s website for information about the Kirby Simon Summer Fellowship and how to apply. Yale Law School students: for human rights summer fellowship advising, contact dina.haynes@yale.edu.