Law students Kristin McHale and Sam Walker win AUCC awards
The Faculty was delighted to announce that the recipients of the 2008 "Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) “Students for Development” Award include two law students.
Samuel Walker (BCL/LLB ’09) and Kristin McHale (BCL/LLB ’09), each received one of the $10,000 awards given annually by AUCC to students pursuing internships promoting governance in developing countries.
Samuel Walker will intern with the Refugee Law Project (RLP) in Kampala, an organization that aims to promote and protect the rights of roughly 2 million displaced persons in Uganda. Sam led the Human Rights Working Group on campus and was an organizer of the Global Genocide Conference on the Prevention of Genocide last year. His internship experience will involve working in RLP’s legal aid clinic, helping individual refugees realize their rights.
Kristin McHale will intern at the Consorcio Desarrollo y Justicia (the Consortium for Development and Justice), a Caracas-based NGO that works to promote human rights, good governance, and the rule of law in Venezuela. As a law student, Kristin has been involved with the McGill Legal Information Clinic, Pro Bono Students Canada and the McGill International Journal for Sustainable Development Law and Policy. This internship will be her first direct experience in human rights and development work.
The Students for Development Program financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) brings together Canadian university students and partners in developing countries to contribute to governance capacity-building. The program is managed by AUCC and grants $10,000 awards to Canadian youth who are engaged in formal learning to better understand governance issues by participating in internships in developing countries. In 2007, law students Kyle Gervais (BCL/LLB’08) and Sybil Thompson (BCL/LLB’08) also won the award.