Before her summer spent in Geneva, Switzerland as an intern for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Elise Kloeppner (MHR ‘25) had never been outside of Minnesota for more than two weeks, much less lived in a foreign country.
Kloeppner said her experience in Geneva not only expanded her horizons, but working for the United Nations helped her grow as a person and as a human rights advocate.
Kloeppner is in her second year pursuing her Master of Human Rights (MHR), where she is focusing on a self-designed concentration in social psychology. The MHR is jointly offered by the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and the College of Liberal Arts.
The program has a relationship with the OHCHR that allows them to send one student per year to intern over the summer.
One of the classes Kloeppner took through the MHR program, Human Rights Policy: Issues and Actors, focused on learning about the UN and its role in human rights. Kloeppner’s experience learning about the UN and understanding the significant role it plays for human rights on the world stage inspired her to apply for the internship.
“The UN is the UN. When you see that opportunity, you go for it,” she said.
Hands-on work at the UN
In Geneva, Kloeppner was assigned to work on the Rights of Older Persons team, which was tasked with building a strategy and framework to ensure the rights and wellbeing of older persons around the world. Her role was to build a network of nonprofit organizations and NGOs working on the human rights of older persons in UN member states.
Kloeppner also created summary reports; wrote and conducted research for a 50-page paper on legal visibility and unique situations older people face in all UN regions; and assisted in the daily organization, publications, and operation of the team.
She also worked on the UN report on violence against, abuse, and neglect of older persons, and her words are now a part of this important report.
Working at the UN has helped Kloeppner see the complexities of human rights work—that even when everyone agrees something needs to be done, there are many voices, nuances, and bureaucratic steps that can slow down the process of taking action. She learned that human rights issues are complicated and take time to work out, despite the urgency of the issues.
“You have to come up with real solutions, and they might not be the most straightforward,” she said.
This experience has brought Kloeppner a new understanding of how to come up with realistic solutions to human rights issues. Her biggest takeaway, however, was the personal growth she experienced, and learning how to absorb information from sitting back and listening.
As someone who is ambitious and always wanting to provide input, Kloeppner said she had to adjust her mindset to learning by listening to others, rather than from contributing to the conversation, especially when people were speaking about their lived experiences.
Kloeppner is now looking to pursue a PhD. With her experience living in Geneva, she knows she is able to live away from home, and feels confident in her abilities to figure out problems as they come her way.
During this once-in-a-lifetime experience, Kloeppner was able to apply skills she learned from her MHR classes to her internship, and her time with the OHCHR will continue to shape how she will approach future endeavors in her education and career.
She will always maintain a human rights focus in her future research and work, pursuing her goal of advocating for others.
“Human rights work will keep me grounded to why I got into this field,” she said.
This story was originally published by the Human Rights Program.
