Unless you track news about the violation of women’s human rights, you will be shocked to know that it is still prevalent in various forms around the world. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women:

-- At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime;

-- It is estimated that as many as two million people are trafficked each year. Although both adults and children – male and female – are victims of trafficking, the majority are female. The most common countries of destination are Western Europe, Asia, and North America;

-- More than 130 million women and girls alive today are victims of female genital mutilation, mainly in Africa and some Middle Eastern Countries ;

-- In the United States, nearly 25% of women and 7.6% of men are raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or dating partner/acquaintance at some time in their lifetime;

--Thousands of women are killed or disfigured by their husband or husband’s family as a result of dowry disputes, arising when a woman’s family cannot pay the money, goods or estate promised to her in-laws at her engagement. Although dowries are used in cultures around the world, this form of violence is particularly prevalent in South Asia.

The list of human rights violations against women goes on and on, and Sara Waldron isn’t the kind of individual to stand around hoping for someone else to help solve this global problem. She is in the group of people who plan to do something about it.

As Sara points out, violence against women is rooted in a global culture of gender inequality, compounded by discrimination regarding race, ethnicity, sexual identity, social status, class, and age. These types of discrimination impede women's choices, increase their vulnerability to violence and make it harder for women to obtain justice.

“Individual states and the international community have an obligation to prevent, protect against, and punish violence against women, period,” she says.

After graduating from Carden Academy HB at the top of her class, Sara attended Mater Dei High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts in French and Sociology from the University of San Francisco, where she graduated Cum Laude with an in December 2006. It was there where the issue of women’s human rights “captured me,” she says, and led to her desire to become an attorney.

While she was at USF, Sara studied abroad at La Sorbonne and L' Institut Catholique in Paris in 2005-06. She speaks fluent French, which is certainly no surprise since her mother teaches the language at Carden Academy HB and is the primary reason it finishes among the top schools in the nation in the National French Contest, Le Grand Concours, individually and as a school.

French isn’t the only language Sara speaks. She is working on her Mandarin too.

Eating at the Night Market in Beijing

After graduating from USF, Sara studied Mandarin at San Francisco State University from January to May 2007 and then put that skill to work a few months later when she traveled to China for a year to work at The Learning Center of Beijing as an English and French Language tutor. 
 
Calling it an "amazing life and cultural experience," Sara tutored individual students from all over the world and created, implemented and ran an English language summer camp for elementary students. At the same time, she worked for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Beijing, where she researched China's compliance obligations with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, helped prepare HIV/AIDS and economic and political empowerment projects and co-organized an anti-violence against women event at Tsinghua University.

Currently, she is attending American University Washington College of Law, where she is enrolled in an international dual degree program with l’Université de Paris X-Nanterre. She expects to graduate in June 2012 with an American J.D. and a French Master I and Master II. In addition to her studies, Sara is current co-editor-in-chief of the Human Rights Brief, serves on the Executive Board of the Women’s Law Association, and was recently hired as a research associate for the Public International Law and Policy Group. She has already received two major honors at WCL – the Mary C. Arends Public Interest Scholarship and an American University Washington College of Law Merit Scholarship.

This summer, she is interning with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, focusing on the right to self-determination in Western Sahara.

Sara’s remarkable success, drive, confidence, and intelligence comes initially from her parents and was nurtured at Carden Academy HB.

“Carden Academy HB is a very special school,” she says. “The success of Carden is the small classes, the individual attention, the quality of the teachers, and the wonderful educational and supportive environment. My teachers were so encouraging and always pushed the students to do better. That really contributes to building your confidence and helping you know that you can accomplish anything.”