Wesleyan ACTS Program

The University Network for Human Rights is excited to launch the Advocacy & Community-based Training Semester (ACTS) Program in partnership with Wesleyan University. This program builds on our successful Human Rights Summer Intensive and our Pilot Program in Human Rights Advocacy. It is the first of its kind in the country and the only full-time clinical human rights opportunity available to undergraduates. The ACTS Program will train and engage undergraduate students from across the country in human rights practice. 

Students selected for the Program will spend a semester at Wesleyan University, where they will gain an understanding of foundational human rights texts and critiques, and sharpen their research, writing, and advocacy skills. While on campus, students will receive training from human rights experts, practice their fact-finding and documentation skills in our Intensive Simulation Exercise, and apply their skills to real-world human rights projects under the guidance of our experienced supervisors. Over the course of the Program, our supervisors and staff will provide personalized feedback to students, developing students’ skills to advance human rights and social justice, locally and globally. Through their projects, students will directly support the work of communities facing rights abuse and injustice. 

During breaks in the academic year, students in the Program may travel to the site of rights abuse to work directly with affected communities in small groups (2 or 3 students) with a supervisor.

After their semester at Wesleyan and their field work, students will continue working on their supervised human rights projects in the subsequent semester, from their home university or college. During this period, supervision will be both remote and direct (via supervisor travel to participating students’ campuses and/or return visits by students to Wesleyan.