8. Melanie Moore
Sponsor Club: Blackburg, Virginia, District 7570
Host Club: Brisbane, Queensland Club, District 9600
Melanie is from the United States and grew up in Virginia. She received her undergraduate degree in government and international studies with a focus on Latin America from the University of South Carolina. Melanie began her professional career in Argentina promoting academic, social and personal growth of university students living a generation after the Dirty War. She subsequently interned at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego, California concerning the conflict between the Ugandan government and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army.
Desiring to impact local community development and human rights, she went on to teach high school students Spanish and English as a Second Language, work as a program coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and serve as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused and neglected youth. She then received the Rotary Peace Fellowship, under which she studied in Japan and Australia. She completed her Applied Field Experience at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania and Kigali, Rwanda. As Judicial-Cooperations Intern, she researched the judicial successes and challenges of the ICTR, as well as drafted communiqué between legal representatives and heads of state. Melanie’s interest in peace and conflict resolution emerged when she visited post-Cold War Russia as a child.
Witnessing the psychological and economic struggle of the Russian people incited a passion for international cooperation. Her academic research has focused on human rights, creative-arts peacebuilding, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide. After graduation, she endeavors to work in the field of human rights monitoring.