Kahane U.N. Program Report, 2022-23

William and Elizabeth Kahane

United Nations Program at Occidental College Report of Academic Year 2022-23

About Us

The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program at Occidental College is a flagship program for Oxy, one that uniquely combines theory and practice. We thank you for your help in giving students unparalleled access to high-level internships in a variety of U.N. agencies and government missions to the United Nations as well as NGOs, and reinforcing those experiences with a classroom curriculum that rounds out students’ understanding of the U.N.’s work. Through their involvement in the Kahane U.N. Program, participants are able to acquire knowledge and understanding based on multiple intellectual, political, and cultural viewpoints, with students also reporting feeling a boost in their confidence and communication and other skill sets.

Under Director Cynthia Rothschild’s leadership, the Kahane U.N. Program continues to thrive and evolve. Our internship supervisors remain thrilled with the work of our students and, in turn, our students consistently remark on how crucial these experiential learning opportunities are to them. Such immersive educational and internship experiences encourage our students’ professional development and promote the intersection of critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and academic skills building, enabling our students to become better global citizens committed to mutual respect and engagement and the global public good.

The tremendous impact of the Kahane U.N. Program also extends beyond our cohort of program participants and back to Occidental’s campus. During the spring semester, through the College’s annual U.N. Week, a wider range of students become immersed and equipped with the intellectual understanding and tools to better address a broad array of our society’s critical challenges. Programming for U.N. Week includes lectures and presentations by U.N. scholars and diplomats, interactive events and discussions, and a Kahane U.N. Program panel where participants share their experiences from the previous semester. This year’s theme centered on “Intersectional Solidarity & Human Rights” and was held February 20-24, 2023. Student involvement in our U.N. Week is tantamount, and due to the relaxation of COVID restrictions, students were once again involved in many aspects of event planning, programming, and logistical support.

These incredible learning opportunities continue to be available to each year’s Kahane U.N. Program cohort and the entire Oxy community through generous support from William and Elizabeth Kahane for the Kahane United Nations Program Endowment and the Kahane Scholars Endowment. We thank you for your partnership as we collectively strive to provide our students with access to a liberal arts education with global practical application that speaks to the unique needs of our students—and our world—today.

Foreword From the Director

Cynthia Rothschild

Director, William and Elizabeth Kahane

United Nations Program at Occidental College

It seems the latter part of 2022 was same old, same old–except: The U.K.’s queen died and the U.K. government went through two transitions of leadership–three governments–within a two-month period. The Russia-Ukraine war scorched not only buildings and land but also the geopolitical landscape in multilateral settings. Conflict of various sorts also raged in, among other places, Ethiopia, Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela, and, in a number of ways, the U.S. The COVID pandemic slowed, yet still hovered persistently. Relations between states—meant globally and domestically— soured, including in terms of the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs anti-abortion ruling.

So. It was just another normal year for the Kahane U.N. Program at Oxy!

The good news is that there were no shooters in front of the U.N., no floods requiring emergency outreach, and we all rolled along rather calmly from September through December of 2022. We had a focused steady semester, for which I am so grateful.

Kahane U.N. Program students continued to excel. Our 13 students again took on immense responsibility and produced extremely high-caliber work. Supervisors, overall, were emphatic in their appreciation and validation of students’ performance. They noted that students integrated, often seamlessly, into the staff team and, most important, many spoke to relationships that went beyond the collegial: They noted, and Jacques and I saw, warm and easy engagement. In our final evaluations with students and supervisors, a few of the latter noted the students were “a pleasure to work with,” “functioned as a staff,” and hosts “couldn’t have asked for more.”

Most students provided in-person support as COVID restrictions eased. Some were in the U.N. itself, monitoring the General Assembly; others were in the offices of their hosts, providing core support for ongoing programming, relatively unaffected by the GA’s chaotic months.

Additionally, most continued to have some form of remote engagement; we haven’t shed that opportunity or curse in terms of NYC work. We have every reason to believe that partially remote meeting participation and supervision by hosts will continue; the landscape has shifted here as we all learn what does and doesn’t require in-person attendance.

COVID—the gift that keeps on giving—affected the size of the applicant pool, and consequently the number of those chosen for the program. We had a smaller, more intimate group than in recent years. This led to fewer site placements, and to temporarily suspending our Costa Rica Mission support, as we did not have the Spanish-speaking skill required for successful functioning there.

Two students contracted COVID during the semester, and we were all on watch for that to “explode” through the group; thankfully, it did not. Our systems, including SIT (School for International Training) engagement through Karl Rivera, proved to be effective in those moments of student vulnerability. We made changes as we needed to (to allow remote participation in classes, for instance) and all went well. Students continued to look out for one another in these particularly challenging moments.

I remain so grateful for the ongoing support of the Kahanes and Oxy staff, and, as always, I must flag the steadfast interest of Laura Hebert and Derek Shearer of the Kahane U.N. Committee and other Diplomacy and World Affairs (DWA) faculty, Robin Craggs and Marisa Grover Mofford in the International Programs Office (IPO), and my adored “co-pilot,” Jacques Fomerand. They all remain both the heart and the backbone of the Kahane U.N. Program.

A Year in Review and a Day in the Life

From Director Cynthia Rothschild

A few days in the life of (part of) the Kahane U.N. Program: In November, I went to a session of the General Assembly Third Committee (which focuses on human rights and social issues) that I thought would be particularly interesting. I was pleased to see one Oxy student, Jude George ’23, in that crowded U.N. conference room sitting with a team of staff and advocates from their NGO closely following and busily note taking. I then looked up and saw another of our students, Grace Heifetz ’23, projected onto the official proceedings widescreen as she took the microphone for the U.K. Mission and delivered its government statement in response to a panel on discrimination and violence. Oxy was “in the house,” as the saying goes–all bases were covered: We were the voice of the government and we were helping to steer future civil society advocacy. To me, that’s a good day in the Kahane U.N. Program!

One aside here: Grace (the student noted above who interned at the U.K. Mission) early in the semester had mentioned being nervous about public speaking. By the end of the semester, she said she felt much more confident and saw that as an added benefit of the program; this isn’t a measurable outcome, but is, nonetheless, an extremely important one. Our students leave the program with deeper skills and greater selftrust. That discussion with Grace marked a different kind of high point for me, as well.

Interesting dynamic moments in the 2022 Kahane U.N. Program semester: As noted, our four U.K. Mission students were on a magic carpet ride, hanging onto the frayed corners, as the government of the U.K. whipped through three governments and dealt with the death of Queen Elizabeth II within the first weeks of the internship and our semester. The U.K. Mission imposed a 10-day mourning period for which there was a dress code, and possibly a program first—students had to ensure they wore black clothes for any public work!

And in a different kind of geopolitical moment, toward the middle of the fall, we heard rumors about the U.S. and other nations organizing to have Iran removed from the Commission on the Status of Women. This is very rare: States tend not to remove or suspend others from U.N. bodies. By the end of the semester, the deed had been done, which made for compelling conversations with students about ethics, power, hypocrisy, conflict, and how gender is used in multilateral spaces.

The men’s World Cup soccer tournament added an interesting lens of sports and politics to the semester. Other than the rich discussions that the competition sparked (on forced labor, migration, and discrimination, for instance), Jacques and I learned that in World Cup season, we must adjust due dates for papers, scheduling for guests, and anything else that interferes with students’ attention to that global phenomenon. I am glad it doesn’t last longer!

A note on NGOs: I’m pleased with how this addition to the Kahane U.N. Program is evolving. There were three placements for this term, including the addition of the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s U.N. Office (two others remained from the previous year: OutRight Action International and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, or GPPAC). All placements involved direct engagement with the General Assembly Third Committee or Security Council; much of students’ work entailed monitoring negotiations on resolutions and also writing/crafting messaging/reporting for those NGOs’ global constituencies to inform advocacy.

Academics/Courses

The students continued to produce smart analysis and to engage in creative and dynamic discussion. In one class, students created a U.N. Program “Jeopardy” game, which was educational and fun (the fact that I have seen Madonna perform live three times was exposed, a bit to my chagrin).

Oxy continues to send us strong writers and thinkers. Jacques, the U.N. Committee, IPO, and I are in dialogue about ensuring our messaging about the Kahane U.N. Program emphasizes the academic component as the thread that ties all the pieces together—both analytically and on a practical level.

Overall, student engagement is strong—they come out of our classes and the internships with a much deeper understanding of human rights, conflict/peace and security, and how power—and money—operate in U.N. environments. Jacques and I tweak our courses to address current events and also to maintain our consistent emphasis on human rights and conflict prevention as main themes. In 2022, of course, we both addressed the deepening and entrenched conflict in Russia/Ukraine, climate justice, and a host of other timely concerns.

Overview of the Group and Internships

Thirteen students were accepted into the 2022 Kahane U.N. Program. They were placed in eight sites.

Gender and demographics: Five participants identified as male, seven as female, and one as gendernonconforming.

Placements:

• U.N. Agencies: 6 students

• Government Missions: 4 students

• NGOs: 3 students

GPPAC (Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict)

IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation)

OutRight Action International

U.K. Mission

U.K. Mission

U.K. Mission

U.K. Mission

UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

UNDP

Lucy Stevenson ’23

Rhea Karandikar ’23

Jude George ’23

Melekete Gebremichale ’23

Grace Heifetz ’23

Chris Kuran ’23

Ben Pappas ’23

Garrett Richardson ’23

Lisa Yang ’23

UNDP Xinzhe (Archie) Zuo ’22

UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)

UNHCR (The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)

Other Noteworthy Topics

Anushka Malhotra ’23

Prithvi Dinesh Chandra ’23

Sanam Yusuf ’23

FOCUS AREA

Peacebuilding focus, report development, and constituency communication.

GA focus, including sexual and reproductive health and rights; writing for IPPF constituencies.

GA focus, human rights, resolution monitoring related to gender and sexuality; support for “Advocacy Week” with global activists.

GA focus, including an analysis of/ negotiations related to water.

GA focus, generally human rights; preparation for U.K. CSW engagement.

GA focus, Fifth Committee, including in relation to U.N. budgets.

Communications/public relations focus.

Review of PEPFAR HIV/AIDS Program implementation at country level.

Climate and environment focus, data analysis, and conference planning.

Support for project reviewing impact of discriminatory laws on public health.

Support for gender-based violence case study/report development.

Support for Third Committee human rights and Security Council meetings; review of refugee/migration positions of new Security Council members.

Support for pilot program on child vaccination and program on faith leaders and rights of young people.

• In the second year of our SIT partnership, Karl Rivera stepped in as the SIT New York point person. Karl planned a number of weekend tours and events with the student group, led a number of group conversations, and met with students (remotely) during the semester to ensure their well-being and ease. Karl will join us again for 2023. He is good with students, puts them at ease, and has a sensitive listening ear.

• Students are becoming increasingly accustomed to working with supervisors remotely. This, too, is a product of the pandemic. While this isn’t ideal, it is a reflection of a change in the times and actually may open Kahane U.N. Program possibilities for the future.

• Applications to all Oxy study abroad programs (the U.N. Program falls under this term as it’s off the Eagle Rock campus) declined due to COVID this year. This was the second to last cohort that was deeply impacted by the 2020-21 imposition of remote teaching—and on a national level, students are choosing to spend their last semesters on the campuses where they “lost time.” The size of our 2022 group was smaller, but to my eye, this group was more intimate, as a result. We expect the 2023 group to be on the smaller side, as well, as this will be the last to have been heavily affected by suspended presence on the Eagle Rock campus.

• We continued to deepen our pre-U.N. semester processes, including our intensive weeklong orientation for students upon arrival. This is preceded by one-on-one discussions with students shortly after their acceptance into the Kahane U.N. Program and remote group discussions in the summer.

Guests and Visits

The Kahane U.N. Program hosted a number of guests through the 2022 semester. Highlights included:

• U.N. Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation Victor Madrigal-Borloz was in NYC for his presentation to the GA. He met with our group after a challenging day at the U.N.

• Indai Sajor joined us to share stories of her decades-long work supporting the U.N.’s humanitarian efforts. Students enjoyed her first-person honest accounts of negotiating with traditional leaders and rebel forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to make headway in securing rights of women.

• Mariam Jalabi, of the Syrian Opposition Party, discussed the entrenched nature of the conflict in that country and how difficult it is to feel a sense of progress.

• Steve Schlesinger shared ideas in the beginning of the semester about the founding and earliest days of the U.N.

In addition, during the fall, Bill Kahane graciously hosted our team, along with Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Wendy Sternberg and former Vice President for Institutional Advancement Charlie Cardillo, for dinner at his lovely home. Although we were sorry not to see Elizabeth, we all remain so grateful for these visits and to be able to share a meal, ideas, and histories.

U.N. Week

At the end of February 2023, Oxy hosted its in-person U.N. Week once again. Jacques and I went to Los Angeles, where we each offered campus-wide talks (Jacques’ focused on current challenges facing the U.N. system, and I focused on right-wing extremism and its impact on global and U.N. politics).

Our keynote was a powerhouse—Dominique Day, who chaired the U.N.’s Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. Dominique’s presentation was so dynamic and duly well-received. She highlighted some of the myriad ways racism appears in U.N. contexts, including in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in the U.S. and in contexts of colonialism. Her “tell it like it is” approach was a welcome breath of fresh air; she makes the U.N. seem “real,” flaws and all. She and I joined students in other events as well, including one on intersectionality.

The Kahane U.N. Program at Occidental College Committee and the Kahane U.N. Program also hosted a student conversation—a public event where some of the 2022 students were featured, and where they shared their experiences and ideas in a public forum. This recurring event is particularly useful for reaching potential future Kahane U.N. Program applicants.

Being on campus with our “recently departed” students is so heartwarming. It’s lovely to see their growth and their spike in sophistication in how they address their U.N. Program experience, and to be able to wish them well right before they graduate.

Dominique Day

Photo by Katia Ruiz

The View Ahead

In the fall of 2023, we will again welcome 13 students, after a rigorous application process. In terms of placements, we are likely to have the opportunity to return to the Costa Rican Mission, given the language skills of the group. We don’t anticipate significant differences in our placement roster next year.

The U.K. Mission remains an exceptional placement, with outstanding onboarding, supervision, and allocation of responsibilities. Oxy’s Kahane U.N. Program also has become a bit of a pipeline to employment there: It has hired five program students in the last few years. No headhunting fee has been offered, though!

One of our former Kahane U.N. Program participants, Maya Angulo ’21, currently works at the British Consulate-General Los Angeles and became an InternLA program host in the summer of 2023. Maya supervised a summer intern, led an impact session for the InternLA cohort about personal and professional development, and also enlisted an additional department at the Consulate to participate in InternLA in 2024. That means we’ll have two Oxy exclusive internships at the British ConsulateGeneral Los Angeles for the summer of 2024. Maya is a great example of a Kahane U.N. Program participant who continued her professional career in the government sector, has stayed involved, and also connected her work back to helping Oxy students.

As noted previously, we rely on the outstanding Oxy pipeline into the Kahane U.N. Program. DWA rests at the core of this process. I am also interested in deepening or developing a relationship with other departments and programs (i.e., Black Studies and Latinx Studies) to promote interest. The need for core competencies remains, however, including background knowledge in international organizations and human rights. In addition, students need to be deeply interested in geopolitics, strong writers, emotionally mature, “easy” in communication and personality—and … maybe most important, have two characteristics: simply caring about justice in the world, and a sense of humor to navigate the demanding circuitous path to attain it.

Summary Remarks

Laura Hebert

Kahane U.N. Program at Occidental College Committee Co-Chair

The William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program Endowment has enabled Occidental College to create meaningful opportunities for campus-wide conversations about the ideas, norms, and values of the United Nations. As in years past, U.N. Week was the focal point of our U.N. programming during the 2022-23 academic year. After two years of programming modifications due to the pandemic, the relaxation of COVID-related restrictions on campus happily allowed us to return to a more traditional U.N. Week format and to once again involve students in event planning. After I put out a call for student support in the fall of 2022, the response was overwhelming, with nearly 40 students expressing their interest in planning activities or offering logistical support—a wonderful indication of the enthusiasm and energy on campus for the Kahane U.N. Program.

This year’s U.N. Week centered on the theme of “Intersectional Solidarity & Human Rights” and was held February 20-24, 2023. Student organizers launched the week with an event titled “Forced Famine: Tigray, Ethiopia,” which featured the viewing of a short film produced by the Tigray Project, followed by comments from the filmmaker and an open conversation led by student facilitators on the human rights implications of the armed conflict in Ethiopia.

We were fortunate to have as our keynote speaker for U.N. Week Dominique Day, a member and former chair of the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, who gave a riveting talk titled “Meeting Global Demand for Intersectional Racial Justice: Can the U.N. End Racism?” Day is a human rights attorney and, in addition to her work with the U.N., she is the executive director of DAYLIGHT, a collective that promotes anti-racist and transformative justice globally. Day generously spent two days on campus, allowing for informal conversations with faculty, staff, and students about her work and the challenges of promoting social change within the U.N. system, including during a pre-keynote reception and a luncheon the following day. She also participated in a student-organized roundtable discussion on “The Ability of the United Nations to Honor Intersectional Identity,” during which she was joined by Kahane U.N. Program Director Cynthia Rothschild, DWA’s Anthony Chase, and (via Zoom) Stefan Rummel-Shapiro, a former staff member of the U.N. Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) at U.N. headquarters.

Several events during the week featured Kahane U.N. Program faculty and Kahane U.N. Program participants. Jacques Fomerand, assistant director of the Kahane U.N. Program, gave a talk titled “Human Rights in Context: Twilight of Rights? Or Evidence for Hope,” which reflected on the evolution of the international human rights system since its creation in the 1940s and made a case for why, despite the significant damage state self-interests have caused to the system, we should nonetheless be cautiously optimistic about the future of human rights. Jacques’ talk was nicely complemented by an event with Kahane U.N. Program Director Cynthia Rothschild, titled “When Rights Are on Fire: Advocacy, Resistance, and the U.N.,” during which she built on her many years of civil society experience to explore both the limitations and opportunities that exist for bottom-up advocacy to shape international human rights norms, laws, and practices. Cynthia and Jacques also co-facilitated a panel discussion titled “Oxy Kahane U.N. Program: Learning and Unlearning!,” which featured participants from the fall 2022 cohort who talked about their internship experiences with U.N. missions, agencies, and affiliated NGOs and how the two academic courses they completed during the program deepened their understanding of the U.N. system. The panel discussion was followed by a lovely reception during which current and prospective Kahane U.N. Program applicants had the opportunity to meet informally with Kahane U.N. faculty and alumni.

In addition to the Tigray film event and roundtable discussion, two further events were organized entirely by students. Leela Cullity Younger ’24, who has been selected for the fall 2023 Kahane U.N. Program, built on her internship with the Muslim Public Affairs Council to organize a Zoom panel discussion on “The U.N.’s Role in Palestine: International Law and the Fight for Peace.” The event featured Mona Ali Khalil, former senior legal officer in the U.N. Office of the Legal Counsel and founder of MAK Law International; Halla Keir (Kahane U.N. Program alum ’18 and DWA ’19), advocacy and research officer at Medical Aid for Palestinians; and Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and visiting professor in the Critical Theory and Social Justice Department. Finally, Gabriella Acker (DWA ’25) concluded the week with an art exhibit exploring restrictions on abortion rights in the United States.

As these events illustrate, the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program Endowment’s support has proven invaluable for creating opportunities for stimulating campus-wide learning and dialogue on U.N.-related developments; it is also helping to foster a sense of ownership among our students for the Kahane U.N. Program and contributing to the emergence of new student leaders committed to the global public good.