Next Step

Hannah McDermott '11 has been in Amman, Jordan, since September developing English language and community support programs for Sudanese and Somali refugees living in the city.

A Fulbright Scholar, McDermott also teaches English and culture classes at a girls' middle school in Amman.

Last week, she received a full-tuition Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship to attend New York University School of Law.

The Root-Tilden-Kern program awards full-tuition scholarships to students interested in public service law careers.

In an email interview, McDermott said, "I want to work with immigrant populations, particularly youth, facing exploitation in the workplace and complicated immigration systems."

"I credit my career goals to both my involvement with the Cornell Farmworker Program, which allowed me to work directly with immigrant populations in need of assistance, as well as the flexibility of ILR’s curriculum," she said.

"I was able to supplement ILR classes such as Professor Cook's seminar 'Migrants and Migration’ and Professor Compa's 'International Labor Law' course with Arabic language classes and a semester interning in Cairo, Egypt.”

"I graduated with a wide range of knowledge and experiences, which have strongly influenced my postgraduate pursuits," McDermott said.