Human Rights Education Now!
Human Rights Education Now! is a podcast that aims to (1) inform a broader audience in the U.S. and internationally about human rights education (HRE) stories, practices, related issues and theories, (2) expand awareness and knowledge about HRE USA and its programs, and (3) engage partner individuals, groups and organizations in changing the conversation about rights in the U.S. to one employing a human rights education lens.
Human Rights Education Now!
Episode 66: Youth Advocates, Part One
Jude Armstrong is a writer and abolitionist from New Orleans, Louisiana. They organize alongside queer youth to protest anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and advocate for social justice. Their poetry has appeared in The Amistad, Palette Poetry, and Bottlecap Press, with recognition from Adroit Journal, YoungArts, and Teen Sequins. Jude is currently studying Human Rights and English at Columbia University.
Jaya Field was raised in Evanston, Illinois and is a senior at the University of Washington, double majoring in International Studies and Law, Societies & Justice. Her work explores how international legal systems impact marginalized communities. She has presented research internationally and gained field experience through study abroad programs in Perú and Italy, focusing on queer, migrant, Indigenous, and disability rights.
Ella Henry is an 18-year-old Mexican Samoan student from Boise, Idaho, and a sophomore at Columbia University majoring in Race and Ethnicity Studies. She serves as Advocacy Coordinator for the Housing Equity Project, volunteers as a Spanish interpreter for asylum seekers, and interns at the ACLU of Idaho, focusing on immigrant rights and outreach.
In this episode of Human Rights Education Now!, hosts Ava Kreutziger and Elizabeth Schwab speak with youth advocates Jude Armstrong, Jaya Field, and Ella Henry about how education shapes their understanding of human rights. They share experiences with Eurocentric and exclusionary curricula, the absence of marginalized voices, and how these gaps motivated their activism. Ella discusses her “Know Your Rights” trainings for immigrant communities, while the group reflects on censorship through omission and the need for inclusive, truth-based education that connects classroom learning to real-world justice movements.
Topics discussed:
- Personal origins of activism in climate, immigrant, queer, and abolitionist justice
- Educational inequities and censorship through omission
- Centering marginalized and Indigenous perspectives in curricula
- “Know Your Rights” trainings for immigrant communities
- Disconnect between public education and community realities
- Calls for embedding human rights in K–12 education
Full topic listing available for PDF download HERE.
Listen on our HREUSA podcast website HERE.
Introduction and Closing Music Credit: “Awakening-Spring” by Ketsa, from the Album Night Vision. Available at the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/night-vision/awakening-spring/
This music is used in accordance with this Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Information about that license is available here https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Human Rights Education Now! is produced and distributed in accordance with Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International. Information about this license is available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/