Student Internship Spotlight: Alli Strong

A young woman with dirty blond shoulder length hair and glasses stands in front of the doors to a brick building. She is wearing a grey t-shirt that reads "Minnesota" with a large maroon "M" outlined in gold underneath.

Alli Strong is a second year Master of Human Rights student concentrating in gender and development. She spent the summer interning with Mobility International, USA in Eugene, Oregon.

Human Rights Program (HRP): Tell us where you interned this summer and what you worked on while you were there.

Alli Strong (AS): This summer I had the opportunity to intern with Mobility International, USA (MIUSA) and was based at their headquarters in Eugene, Oregon. MIUSA seeks to advance the rights of people with disabilities, and advocates for people with disabilities to take part in the disability-led movement for disability rights in the United States and globally. During my internship, I had the privilege of working full-time on the RightsNow! Strong Communities through Disability Rights Implementation (RightsNow!) project. The RightsNow! project is in its fourth and final year, and during my internship the RightsNow! team was looking for ways in which to demonstrate the impact the four-year project has had in its six project countries (Armenia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam). Specifically, I analyzed and visualized survey data from various RightsNow! trainings, to be included in final and quarterly project reports. Two trainings in particular that I worked on survey data for reports were: 1) a RightsNow! Seminar on Access to Justice for People with Disabilities in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and 2) a Training of Trainers (TOT) Workshop for People with Disabilities in Hanoi, Vietnam. I also was given the opportunity to choose current resources on disability rights implementation and write up short articles/blog posts for the Global Disability Rights Now Resource Center. For example, I wrote a resource which highlighted a consortium partner's recent White Paper on Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
 
In the last week of my internship, I had the privilege of being a part of the program team who welcomed 28 high school students with disabilities on the U.S. Department of State-funded year-long study programs - Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX), and Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study (YES) Program. The orientation team at MIUSA worked with these 28 students with disabilities for 5 days in Eugene. The students were a cross-disability group, which included students who are blind/low vision, students who are Deaf/hard of hearing, students with mobility/physical disabilities, and students with non-apparent disabilities. During the 5-day orientation, I helped conduct trainings for the students on understanding their rights regarding access, independent living, and reasonable accommodations while they study in the U.S. this year. We continuously discussed disability rights advocacy strategies the students can take back with them when they return to their home countries next year.
 

HRP: What were a few major takeaways or lessons your learn this summer through your internship?

AS: There were many takeaways I gained from my internship this summer. Perhaps the most significant, however, were the lessons I learned about what human rights implementation looks like from theory to practice. I worked on creating Story Mapping content for the RightsNow! team as one way of documenting the impact of the four-year project. While gathering RightsNow! participant stories to be included in the online Story Map, I learned what international disability rights look like in practice, and I learned so much that I wrote a blog post for MIUSA. Here is a short part of my piece describing my biggest takeaways: "During my internship, I learned that human rights in practice look a lot like a disabled people’s organization (DPO) in Mexico networking with people with disabilities, government representatives, lawyers, academics, and other members of civil society, to facilitate a three-day seminar on access to justice for people with disabilities. Human rights in practice look like the training-of-trainers approach (TOT) in Vietnam: in which Vietnamese RightsNow! participants with disabilities implement their own training plans to conduct workshops for other disabled persons on effective disability rights implementation strategies, such as cross-disability collaboration. Human rights in practice look a lot like the disability-led Coalition for Inclusive Legal Reform (CILR) in Armenia coordinating 12 community meetings in various regions of the country in order to advocate for rights-based amendments to the country’s draft Disability Law."

HRP: How was the internship related to your course of study, and how do you think it will help you in your career?

AS: My internship provided an in-depth look into disability rights implementation, allowing me to learn varying advocacy strategies both in the United States and in the six different countries in which the RightsNow! project worked. My internship confirmed my previous interests of working within the intersecting fields of disability rights promotion and international development, and for the above-stated lessons/takeaways I gained from my internship, I am much better prepared to enter this field and to make the lasting impact I seek to make in my future work.

*Responses were edited for length and clarity.

 
 
 
Hayley Drozdowski
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