Law Graduate Fellow
Hometown: Paysandú, Uruguay
School: American University
Degree: J.D.
Placement: Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Carolina Rizzo was born and raised in Uruguay, but moved to the United States upon completing high school. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2009 with a B.A. in Latin American & Caribbean studies and international relations & human rights. Carolina is passionate about public service, international human rights and policy and advocacy on behalf of Latinos. In college, she received a Social Change and Community Service Award for her involvement with the local Latino community through “Migrants and Immigrants’ Rights Awareness”, a student-led community organizing group.
In 2012, she obtained a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law. During law school, Carolina was a legal intern at MALDEF, a democratic policy intern in the Office of Senator Harry Reid, and a volunteer at CARECEN. As a student attorney in the International Human Rights Clinic, she represented a Salvadoran asylum seeker in the Baltimore Immigration Court. After law school, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marielsa A. Bernard, the first Latina judge in Montgomery County, Maryland.
As a CHCI Law Graduate Fellow, Carolina will apply her legal skills to the public policy-making process. She hopes to gain valuable insight into the intersection between immigration policy and foreign relations.