Introduction to the Delegation

What:  Investigation of human rights violations in the area of transitional housing  in Cite Soleil
When:  March 13, 2011 - March 19, 2011
Where:  Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Why:   Creation of a human rights report
How:  Interview of local residents and non-governmental organizations


Yuan Tang (3L)
Yuan was born in China and came to the United States at the age of 6.  She has always lived in or around the Philadelphia area.  She went to undergrad at Penn State's main campus where she got degrees in Psychology and Advertising with a minor in Sociology.  After college she did Teach For America for three years where she taught middle school special education in North Philadelphia.  During that time, she pursued a Master's in Education and then came to law school after her teaching experiences.  She never thought she would come to law school but am glad that she did.  She came to law school because of her deep commitment to justice and the underserved in the American society and the world.


Ted Oswald (3L)
Ted is from a suburb near Sacramento, California.  He went to undergrad and studied international relations at the University of California, Davis, and had a life-changing trip to Egypt late in his college career.  Ted returned to Egypt and completed a grad program in refugee studies which gave him lots of opportunities to learn from and live with Sudanese in Cairo.  He started at Drexel shortly thereafter with an interest in asylum and human rights law, which led him to immigration work over the last few years.


Adan Cerda (3L)
Adan was born and raised mostly in Southern California, but recently came from the Phoenix-area.   He attended high school and undergrad in Arizona (ASU).  Adan studied economics and got really into developmental economics.  To him, it didn't make sense that countries continued to struggle even though there were some sound economic principles that could be used to develop greater wealth and hence a greater standard of living for its residence.  He believes the problem often came from non-economic factors including politics, culture, infrastructure.  Adan came to law school because he thought it would give me the greatest leverage for future change in other countries and in our own country.  Specifically, he wanted to work on international affairs in Mexico, but his interests are not exclusively with Mexico or even with just Latin-American countries.


Megan Strobel (2L)
Megan grew up in central Wisconsin. She did her undergrad at UW-Madison where she double majored in legal studies and psychology.  She came to Drexel for their joint law/psych program. She is really interested in the interplay between law and psychology. This is her second year in the program, and really enjoys it. Eventually, she would like to do mental health policy work.


Giselle Aloi (2L)
Giselle is a permanent residence of Texas although she has not lived there in almost five years. However, that is the state where she attended high school and ultimately obtained her BA in History and Art History. Right after graduating, she packed up two suitcases and headed out, alone, to Asia where she carved out a life in Taipei, Taiwan. She left her travels only to come to law school hoping to gain a degree that can meld her love for travel and her passion for helping those less fortunate.  After graduation there is no doubt that she will return to her ravels but this time she hopes to be more focused and better equipped.


Lydia Abdo (2L)
Lydia is from Southern Illinois -- a teeny tiny town in the middle of cows and cornfields called Harrisburg, near Carbondale (Southern Illinois University? Salukis for college sports followers?) and in between St. Louis MO and Nashville TN (each about three hours from my house).  She studied music and English in undergrad, and minored in modern Middle Eastern studies (my parents are from Lebanon and Syria). Don't let her majors fool you -- she's wanted to be a lawyer since she was 3.


Claudia Shank (2L)
Claudia is from Lancaster Pennsylvania. She still lives in Lancaster with her husband, and commutes to Drexel every day. She went to West Chester University (about 30 minutes outside Philadelphia) where she studied Communications and minored in Russian and studio art. As an undergraduate she got her first taste of travel when she went to China through a program at her university. Although she'd always considered law school, she started doing a lot of volunteer work as an undergrad and became very interested in social justice issues which spurred her on to come to Drexel.