Meredith McCain (‘22): A Global Journey in Human Rights

Meredith McCain has combined her interests in migration, youth development, and human rights into a globally engaged career. After graduating with a Master’s in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action from Sciences Po in 2022, she worked at the nonpartisan International Republican Institute before being awarded a Fulbright scholarship for research in Morocco.

McCain completed her Bachelor’s degree at Rice University, majoring in political science and French. During this time, she studied abroad at Sciences Po in Menton, which inspired her to pursue graduate studies at Sciences Po. She was offered the Longview Scholarship in honor of Jane Pumphrey Nes, recognizing her passion for France, its language, and its culture. 

Transitioning between different academic systems was notable, even when comparing undergraduate to graduate studies at Sciences Po. McCain mentioned at Menton, “it was more of a lecture style and it was kind of a shock for me, coming from the US system, because everyone was writing word for word. The master’s program was more UK-American style, because you have a very international group of professors and some classes are much smaller.” 

Additionally, McCain’s first year in Paris was marked by remote learning because she began graduate school during the pandemic. She explained, “I wasn’t able to get there until late October of 2020, and then France immediately went into lockdown again. So I was basically in lockdown my whole first year.” Her second year offered more opportunities to experience the city as things reopened. She interned with an organization called Réfugiés Bienvenue assisting with its solidarity housing project and helping refugees. This work complemented her academic interest in human rights legal theory and practice. 

Along with her study of French, McCain also began learning Arabic and focused on the Middle East during her time at Menton. She continued taking Arabic classes throughout her Master’s program. This combination of languages was useful in Morocco where she carried out a research project. She focused on the experiences of Sub-Saharan African students pursuing higher education because it combined her interests in migration and youth development. She explained, “I wanted to look at their linguistic integration into Morocco, and then it kind of turned into looking at general social integration among international students.” McCain appreciated the chance to do ethnographic-style work: “it was really cool to be on the ground, interacting with people, building relationships, which was an important part of building trust for students to tell me about their lives and to conduct the interviews.”

Before Morocco, McCain spent a year at the International Republic Institute working on democracy and governance projects in West Africa. She helped set up the institute’s office in Sierra Leone and worked on election monitoring and anti-electoral violence programming. The work was rewarding and required a lot of coordination between different teams and local organizations to complete different grant programs. 

Since returning from Morocco, McCain has been navigating a challenging job market in international development. While she remains interested in human rights and development, she’s open to new paths because “there are so many ways you can make an impact. It doesn’t have to be through the UN or a traditional NGO.” Her advice to students and recent graduates is to keep an open mind, as she explained, “my path has already taken some turns that I haven’t expected. It’s important to remain flexible and be open to all different types of opportunities.”