My SPEA-V 550 Experience

Through the O'Neill School's accelerated master's certificate program, I was able to take two master's level courses in the Fall 2025 semester as an undergraduate senior. One specific course I took was SPEA-V 550: Human Rights and War Crimes. While traditional courses focus on conceptual understandings of material, this course included a research partnership with the Department of Homeland Security's Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC). This collaboration allowed me to  apply classroom material while also granting me the opportunity to improve and utilize my research skills in a real world context. My group's research directive was to look into extrajudicial killings abroad as codified in 28 US Code § 1350. 

Skill Development 

This research experience included the analysis of over 100 primary sources in our open source investigation of extrajudicial killings. Deciphering so many sources and extracting relevant information from each of them significantly improved my research skills. I am now more able to effectively find, identify, and extract valuable information from various sources of information. The types of sources my group and I analyzed included news reports, government reports, interviews, documentaries, and the reports of non profit organizations. Repeated exposure to diverse kinds of sources has made me more effective as a researcher. Working in a group, I achieved noticeable growth in my cooperation and communication skills during our semester long project. In addition, my group and I would have regular biweekly check ins with the HRVWCC staff to ensure that our project was headed in the right direction. These check ins gave me a regular schedule and timeline to operate in, boosting my time management and organizational skills significantly. In addition, working and communicating with the Center's staff improved my ability to collaborate and ask questions to supervisors and superiors. Overall, my research project in SPEA-V 550 was the most extensive research project I've done in my college career and sets me up well for future similar projects and experiences as a future graduate student in public policy.  

Reflection

This unique experience has greatly impacted both me and my professional goals. Seeing the growth I achieved throughout the course and project has piqued my interest in doing human rights research in the future. While I am set on getting my master's in public policy after I finish my undergrad, I am still exploring what careers to explore after graduate school. Working with human rights researchers has given me both a connection to that field and has provided me real experience in it. After this project, I understand more the benefits of real world applications and experiences of classroom material and our interests. Had the course simply been about human rights violations without any practical applications, the benefits would have been minimal. However, due to this unique project, I was able to see how my coursework can be applied to my future career and other experiences. In the future, I hope to explore and engage in more tangible projects that help we narrow down my future career interests and aspirations. In a field as diverse and wide ranging as public policy, connections and exposure in as many areas as possible is vital in making a decision about what careers I'll pursue in the future. Overall, my SPEA-V 550 experience greatly improved my research abilities, group collaboration, communication, time management, and organization while also giving me vital connections to a relevant field that could be highly useful for me in the future.