Jose Ibarra Jr. is a first year MA student in IED.
My work with Amnesty International (AI) inspired my educational trajectory at Teachers College. I came in last Spring with a communications background and after taking the Human and Social Dimensions of Peace course with Dr. Felisa Tibbitts, I felt an emotional connection with the area of human rights and peace education. As an immigrant from Perú, I am familiar with the intricate nature of identity and the intersectionality of social categorizations. My life experience imbued me with a particular worldview and empathetic vulnerability which I’ve used to connect with minorities of all walks of life.
When the opportunity for working with Dr. Tibbitts and Amnesty International arose, I was eager to engage and help with the making of the Amnesty toolkit for educators along with two student colleagues, Mallory Tryon and Julie Halterman and the Amnesty team. Our task was to draft a Write for Rights (“W4R”) toolkit for instructors to help engage students in human rights education, facilitate the letter-writing process, and complement material for the annual W4R campaign. The campaign unites teachers and students, calling out injustices wherever they happen and sending thousands of letters to officials and key stakeholders to address the wrongdoings.
My role (apart from team collaboration, feedback and editing) was to focus on the “Freedom from Discrimination” part of the toolkit. I contributed by developing the language, content and aesthetics of this document. Working with Mallory, Julie, Dr. Tibbitts and the Amnesty team helped me to pinpoint my passion for human rights. As a result, I ended up switching to the International and Comparative Education program and I am currently pursuing a master’s in International Education Development (IED) within the program. I am now working toward the completion of my master’s and plan to attend law school to study International Humanitarian Law next fall.
I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to work with such a wonderful group of people, and I am even more thankful to have learned so much along the way. Since then, I have been able to apply a lot of the teamwork skills that I learned to this semester’s coursework, including working around time zone differences, connecting virtually with members, editing and offering suggestions, giving and receiving feedback and encouraging a diversity of opinions. These skills have also aided me in my group projects and team presentations. I am excited for what is to come Even though I am not sure what the future will be, I am certain it will involve human rights, justice and social connection.
I am inspired by the power that we each hold and I am eager to use my power to learn, help and educate.