Oslo Scholars Program seeks to offer undergraduate students who have a demonstrated interest in human rights an opportunity to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum and spend their summer working with the world’s leading human rights activists.
This week marks my tenth and final week at the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI). My time spent working with Executive Director and nonviolent resistance scholar Jamila Raqib has been truly wonderful.
Though I am writing this blog post on American soil, I already wish I was back in Belgrade, eating cevapi while overlooking the Sava river. It is hard to believe that my time in Belgrade has come to an end, yet I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity and experience I had.
It is strange to think that the summer is already halfway over, and my time at the Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) with it. Since my first meeting in early June with Jamila Raqib, the organization’s executive director, I have done more thinking about nonviolent resistance and its intricacies than I have since coming to Tufts.
After spending the past month and a half in Belgrade, I am still enthralled with the incredible work CANVAS is doing and find myself charmed by Belgrade more and more every day.
“The Oslo Freedom Forum is the thorn in tyranny’s side – a thriving global community of activists united by a common vision of making the world more peaceful, prosperous, and free from authoritarianism.”
While it is one thing to study resistance movements in a class or through one’s own personal interest, working with an organization that’s teachings have influenced nonviolent protests around the world is another experience all together.
In May, I had the privilege of attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo, Norway. For three days I had the opportunity to listen and engage in discussion with several human rights activists.
After spending the past five months studying abroad in Athens, Greece, I was ready to go home. However, when I was selected to participate in the Institute for Global Leadership’s (IGL) Oslo Scholars program, I knew I couldn’t leave Europe.
On the 17th of September, I had the privilege of attending the Oslo Freedom Forum in New York. The New York forum is a smaller version of the annual Oslo Freedom Forum in Oslo each spring.
