Erica Lally ’08
Study-abroad opportunities lead to perfect job
February 7, 2011
Erica Lally ’08 Erica Lally ’08 had just started her new job at Human Rights Watch (HRW) when violence broke out in Kyrgyzstan. An associate in the Europe and Central Asia Division at the New York City headquarters, she had to quickly find satellite phones and flak jackets for HRW staff on their way into the country.
“Most of the time you read about things happening overseas and you want to contribute in some way,” says the former international-studies major. “I was able to do something and support the researchers on the ground.”
For Lally, who spent a year in Moscow as a Fulbright scholar gathering oral histories of Soviet-era intellectuals and volunteering for an anti-trafficking organization, HRW is a perfect fit.
“We cover everything from the U.K. to Uzbekistan, so we work on issues in Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, central Asia,” she explains. “[HRW] doesn’t just focus on one issue; it looks at patterns of human-rights abuses in more than 90 countries.”
And she credits her junior year in Russia for setting her on that path.
“Study abroad at Dickinson was a turning point for me,” she explains. “You don’t really grasp the country, language and culture until you’ve been there. Having the opportunity to do that in school changed my perspective on the world.”