On behalf of the IntLawGrrls editorial team, I’m delighted to welcome two new student editors, Carla Cortavarría and Maria Solomidou, to the blog.

Carla Cortavarría is a rising 2L at Temple University Beasley School of Law. She is interested in human rights, particularly in Latin America, as well as immigration and refugee law. This summer she is interning at the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), a non-profit membership organization that strives to advance human rights in various parts of the world through its members. She is currently helping with their Dominican Republic and Haiti programs focusing on gender-based violence, human trafficking, and judicial corruption.

This upcoming school year, she will be the Vice President of Temple’s International Law Society and is planning on studying abroad in Utrecht, Netherlands in the Spring to focus on human rights law. Her goal after graduation is to work in public interest, specifically focusing on social justice issues within Latin America, and those affecting the Latino communities in the United States. Carla is originally from Lima, Peru, but grew up in the DC Metro area. She speaks fluent Spanish, advanced-level French, and some Portuguese.

Maria Solomidou is a Global Scholar and a rising 3L at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Her family history and her experiences overseas have cultivated her academic interest in international and human rights law. Prior to entering law school, she received her B.A. in International Business and Economics from Temple University’s Fox School of Business. From a young age, Maria was an avid volunteer at the International Red Cross in Nicosia, Cyprus where she had the opportunity to help refugee families fleeing several international crises including the Lebanese/Israeli Conflict and the War in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Since then, Maria has participated in the Temple Global Scholars program in Rome, Italy. She has also interned with a law firm in the Republic of Cyprus that specialized in European Union law and immigration issues. She was able to work directly on asylum cases on appeal in the European Court of Human Rights and also assisted with immigration cases in the Supreme Court of Cyprus. This past year Maria also worked at the Nationalities Services Center in Philadelphia where she worked directly with asylum applicants and refugees.

This summer she is interning with the Honorable Ourania Papademetriou in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Family Division where she will have the opportunity to research family law matters relating to immigration law, specifically Special Immigrant Juveniles Status.

Maria looks forward to a rewarding career in international and human rights law, and is excited to be welcomed into the IntLawGrrls community.

We also say a heartfelt thank you and farewell to student editors Claire Poppelwell-Scevak and Melissa Vo, who worked with us over the past year.   Thanks for your many contributions to the blog!