Citizen Upstanders

Ceci is a third year student at McGill University in Montreal, where she is majoring in Honours Economics, and minoring in History and Russian Language. She became interested in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo during her junior year of high school when she researched and wrote about the rebel group M23. The following year, she worked with the Conflict Free Campus Initiative to educate her school about the connections between electronics, conflict minerals, and violence in Congo. In her second year at McGill, Ceci wrote a motion passed by the students society of McGill to change their procurement policy to include consideration of conflict minerals. This year, Ceci hopes to get a procurement policy passed for the entire university. In her spare time, Ceci likes to make intaglio prints, ride her horse, jog and hike. She also illustrates for the student newspaper and volunteers at an art studio. She hopes to go to graduate school for economics.

Christian Harbert is a senior at Colorado State University. He is studying Communications with a minor in Business and most recently co-founded Rams for Refugees. An on-campus organization that helps brings awareness to refugee rights. As President, he hosted a screening of the film, the Good Lie and put on a Spring symposium around refugee resettlement.

Ellen is a senior at Middleton High School in Middleton, Wisconsin. Her passion for human rights and atrocity prevention began during her sophomore year of high school when she took a US Government class. This is Ellen's second year as a Campus Organizer. Last year, while working with CFCI, she passed a general support statement resolution in her school district as well as helped educate her own community about the presence of conflict minerals within consumer electronic devices. In her free time she likes to write, hike, and read a wide array of genres. Ellen is very excited to continue her work with CFCI and looks forward to collaborating with a network of students to facilitate action against atrocities that are occurring around the world.

Enock is a senior at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) studying International and Global Studies with a concentration in International Business and immersion in Economics. Enock was born in Rwanda and became a refugee in Tanzania until he came to the U.S in 2007. He became interested in human rights and global issues when he first started college. He has a strong interest in justice and international development with a special focus on Africa. Enock is a part of the MacNair Scholars Program and is currently doing research on extremist groups attempting to radicalize youths. He is excited to work with his peers to educate students and school administrators on conflict minerals and its role on the conflict in the Congo and the great lakes region of Africa. He’s working with other students to pass a conflict-free resolution at his school. In his free time, Enock enjoys reading, singing, learning to play piano and spending time with his family and friends.

Jacqui is a senior at Georgetown College in Kentucky where she is majoring in Political Science and minoring in Women’s Studies. While studying in these fields, Jacqui has become passionate about human rights and social justice issues. This summer, she interned at Kentucky Refugee Ministries and worked one-on-one with refugees from the DRC, Syria, and Bhutan. Her hopes for the future are to work more extensively with refugees and their resettlement process in the US. This is Jacqui’s third year as a Campus Organizer for CFCI. Not only has a strong group of students affiliated with CFCI grown on her campus, but this past May, her college finally passed a conflict-free resolution. This school year, she is excited to continue ensuring her college implements this resolution but also to work on new levels of this initiative beyond her own campus. In her free time, Jacqui enjoys practicing Chun Kuk Do, playing basketball with friends, fish ing in the small ponds near campus, and flipping between The Office and Madam Secretary on Netflix.

Jameelah is a freshman at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and a first-year Campus Organizer. She is an international relations and psychology double major and has a specific interest in trauma and conflict zones. Her interest in social justice and human rights began when she taught self-defense during her junior year of high school and formed personal connections with survivors of sexual assault. Her work with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and Physicians for Human Rights' Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones Program has made advocating against sexual and gender based violence central to her activism, both in the United States and abroad. As a Campus Organizer, she is hoping to not only pass a resolution on her campus, but to make human rights, especially international women's rights, a greater area of interest to her community. Along with being a campus organizer, she is an executive member of Witkaze, her college's black student association, and vice-president of her college's community service club, Scotties for Change.

Jane is a junior at Boston University pursuing a degree in International Relations, with a minor in Migration Studies. In school and otherwise, she is focused on Sub-Saharan Africa both academically and personally: a native of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, she has remained attentive towards issues regarding the African continent, especially those concerning human rights and sustainable development. She is an advocate of sustainable resource investment, and studies land and natural resource exploitation as a major factor that creates emigrants. Jane explores policy and grassroots activism that can protect civilians both inside and outside their home countries. At BU, Jane is involved in Student Government as the Vice President of the student body, the founder of the group Stability, Empowerment, and Rights in Africa, and otherwise frequents the French club, and on-campus events. Her down time is spent developing her photography skills, making playlists for every mood, biking through Boston, day-dreaming about traveling, or scouring Netflix for indie films!

Jayne is a third-year student at University at Buffalo School of Law. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, with a minor in history, and a Graduate Certification in Museum Studies. She first became interested in human rights issues in 2008 when she became involved with the Summer Institute of Human Rights and Genocide Studies, where she is now on the Board of Directors. She has spent her summers doing everything from archaeological excavations in Portugal to defending prisoners' constitutional rights. She has an interest in international law, with a focus on human rights, humanitarian, and criminal law. She is actively involved in the law school community and is an experienced organizer. She looks forward to introducing CFCI to the law school community and working to build the movement from the ground up within the law school.

Jenna is a senior at the University of Southern California. As she wraps up her undergraduate experience with a major in political science and minor in environmental science, she'll be starting the first year of her progressive Masters of Public Administration Program. She is currently the President of the USC chapter Stand: the anti-genocide coalition, Vice President for Jumpstart, a readers club, and an active member of her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. Hailing from Armonk, New York, Jenna has two older brothers and two dogs at home. Jenna recently returned from a backpacking trip in Europe and is eager to plan her next big travel adventure. Aside from traveling, Jenna loves to read, write and play piano in her free time. Since becoming involved in anti-genocide work through her position in Stand, she is excited to be working with other like-minded individuals through the Enough Project to stop the injustices that are taking place across the globe.

Jessica is a senior at Brandeis University where she is majoring in Politics and Studio Art. Her passion for human rights and activism began when she was in middle school, and she wrote a book report on Raoul Wallenberg only to discover that genocide was still happening in Darfur. When Jessica started college, she learned more about the conflict-free movement as Brandeis STAND activists worked to pass a CFCI resolution. Last summer, Jessica interned as for STAND, the student-led movement to end mass atrocities. This year, she is serving as the Northeast Regional Organizer for STAND. At Brandeis, Jessica is the president of her STAND chapter, and works as an editor for her school newspaper, the Justice. In her free time, Jessica loves to create art, read, explore the city, and do yoga. This is Jessica's first year as a Campus Organizer for CFCI. She is looking forward to amplifying the conflict-free movement on her campus, and spreading it to universities across the region.

Joel is a graduate student at the University of Arizona where he is doing a Masters in Finance at the Eller College of Management. He was born and raised in the Easter part of the Democratic Republic of Congo where he has been a both a victim and witness of many conflicts, atrocities which continue to happen there and the louche transactions of the minerals. His interest in Human Rights started when he was part of the winning team in the competition on gender-based violence and inequalities organised by Search For Common Ground in 2010 at this high school Alfajiri in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ever since then, he has been involved in activism and volunteering activities on issues related to human rights and regional conflicts. He holds an undergraduate in Entrepreneurship and Project Planning from Uganda Christian University. While he was there, he understood more about the great lakes conflicts and diverse players hidden agendas. He is motivated and hopes to continue his involvements with students by raising awareness about what is happening in his home country and pass a conflict-free resolution.

Kai is a second year student at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and is studying for an MA in Social policy, and Social and Economic history. Kai was born in Edinburgh in Scotland and has lived there for most of his life. He has been eager to get involved in politics and charity work since he was very young, and really started to do so during the Scottish independence referendum of 2014 and onwards. Since then he has been particularly involved in Scottish and European politics and organization at a grassroots level. Kai has always been drawn to activism and tackling global issues and this year will be his first as campus organizer at CFCI. He hopes to build on the success of Edinburgh being the first University in the UK to have a conflict minerals policy, expanding this to the other Universities locally and around Scotland. On campus Kai is involved in the Scottish National party association as their Vice Chair, the Young European movement as their Union liaison and the University students association as Welfare Campaign Organizer. Aside from CFCI Kai is particularly interested in land reform and the history of Scottish Gaels and the First Nations.

Katy Johnson founded and led the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative (CFCI) chapter at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where she received her Bachelors in Global Security and Political Science. She was also the CFCI Midwest Regional Campus Organizer and worked with campuses across the Midwest on starting and running their own chapters. Her campus activism was also featured in the documentary Merci Congo. After graduating from Wisconsin, Katy moved to Nairobi, Kenya where she was a Princeton in Africa Fellow at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Somalia program. With IRC, she worked on programs that supported displaced persons within Somalia, with a focus on women's protection and empowerment. She also worked for the United Nations Foundation in Washington, DC on the Data2X initiative, which aims to promote more and better data about the lives of women and girls worldwide. While in DC, she co-founded a local Amnesty International chapter focused on human rights in Africa. Katy is currently a graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she studies human security, humanitarian response, and gender analysis.

Madi is a junior undergraduate student studying Political Science and History at the University at Buffalo. She first learned of the Conflict-Free Movement at the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies in Buffalo where her passion for human rights truly began to take shape. This is her second year as a Campus Organizer and she is excited to take what she has learned and accomplished to further raise awareness about the Conflict-Free Movement on her campus. her favorite part of being a Campus Organizer is having one-on-one conversations with students. She believes these conversations are important to have because they show how connected we as consumers are to people around the globe and that we can take steps to make sure we are supporting ethical labor practices and not fueling violence. At UB, Madi is the President of the Amnesty International group and works as a Diversity Advocate in the Intercultural Diversity Center, acting as a peer educator to promote awareness of diversity in all its forms on campus.

Savannah is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in North Carolina. She is majoring in Public Policy and Peace, War, and Defense and is interested in atrocity prevention, human rights, international criminal law, transitional justice, and conflict resolution. She has spent time in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Jordan, Nepal, and Rwanda and is dedicated to studying the ways in which conflict manifests itself in society. She is a Co-Chair of UNC's Coalition for Human Rights, writes for an on-campus political review, and is currently working on a research project examining the United Nations "Responsibility to Protect" norm. In her free time, Savannah loves to go to local concerts, scout out new restaurants, spend time outdoors, read the news, and play board games. This is Savannah's second year with as a Campus Organizer. She is looking forward to working in both DC and her home communities to encourage the manufacture, sale, and use of conflict-free products.