Several 2019 graduates of the Promise Institute have earned prestigious fellowships at leading human rights organizations.

Kristi Ueda '19 was named UCLA Law's Promise Institute Human Rights Watch Fellow, and will receive a full year's salary to join the prestigious advocacy organization.

Human Rights Watch's more than 450 lawyers and experts from 70 countries seek to hold governments and armed groups accountable for abuses and work for justice and the safety of international refugees and migrants. UCLA Law joins a select group of law schools – including Columbia Law School, Yale Law School and NYU School of Law – to offer a Human Rights Watch fellowship.

As a UCLA Law student, Ueda worked closely with professor Tendayi Achiume, who also serves as the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Ueda helped Achiume research and draft reports and traveled to UN Human Rights Council gatherings in New York and Geneva to engage with representatives of nations across the globe, nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders.

Ueda is the third UCLA Law student to gain a fellowship at Human Rights Watch. Pinar Erdem, LLM '18, joined the organization's LGBT rights division immediately after graduation. In 2017, Jasmine Sankofa '15 received the Aryeh Neier Fellowship, awarded by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU.

Other Promise Institute students to land fellowships this year include Erin French '19, who will join the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, and Marc Jacome '19, who will serve as a fellow at the National Immigration Justice Center in Chicago.

In addition, the Promise Institute has funded rising 2L Ming Tanigawa-Lau '21 to participate in the UC Human Rights Fellowship. Tanigawa-Lau is spending the summer at Al Otra Lado, the leading organization working with those seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.