Sara West is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program from Bridgewater, New Jersey, majoring in Women’s & Gender Studies and Political Science with a minor and Theater Arts and a certificate in Women’s Leadership with a policy focus on Human Rights from the Institute for Women’s Leadership She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society, and an Eagleton Undergraduate Associate. Her interest in human rights advocacy and feminist pedagogy has led Sara to intern at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, where she managed a large selection of international publications and assisted with preparing students to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She has also has interned at the office of the late Honorable U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg where she assisted staffers dealing with community organizations, military veterans, education, and immigration. Most recently, Sara has served as the Rutgers University United Nations Youth Representative, attending briefings and working with student organizations to promote the work of the UN, in addition to publishing a handbook on the Rutgers Youth Rep Program. Her experiences thus far have influenced her concern for U.S. ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which she made her research focus for the Gardner Policy Conference. Sara hopes to someday blend her love of theater and social justice to bolster youth civic engagement by creatively integrating human rights into common core curriculum standards by using the arts to democratize classrooms and open up space for empowerment.