How High School History Bowl Led Me to a Career In Human Rights Advocacy

Sana Motorwala, April 30, 2025

My interest in foreign policy as a career started off in an unorthodox way—it was in my junior year of high school, when I joined History Bowl through the Social Studies Honor Society. I had always peripherally been interested in politics and international affairs, which may have been a result of watching NBC Nightly News with my parents starting at a young age. Since I entered high school, I always envisioned myself becoming a doctor and never pictured myself pursuing a career in foreign policy. Joining History Bowl was something I participated in due to the encouragement of my AP U.S. History teacher, and because some of my friends were already part of the club, I treated it more like a social gathering. It was to my surprise that I ended up really liking History Bowl and got to learn so much about the world through so many different lenses. 

As I became more involved in History Bowl, I became interested in looking at topics of colonialism and realized how much more I loved learning about the way history impacted current international affairs. At first, I was interested in learning about British colonialism and its impact on ethno-religious conflict in South Asia, but that expanded to understanding the legacy of colonialism and imperialism worldwide. It was continuing to learn about  these historical events that influenced my decision to consider pivoting from my plans of working in healthcare to the humanities. By the time I was in my senior year of high school, I knew that I would neither like nor be good at being a doctor, so I decided to pursue a degree in international studies.

Pursuing a degree in International Studies allowed me to explore foreign policy and culture at an academic level. Undoubtedly, the class that made me want to focus on human rights and humanitarianism was a class called ‘Human Rights In Asia,’ in which I read “First They Killed My Father” by Loung Ung, a book detailing Ung’s trauma under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the dictatorship of Pol Pot. I was thrilled when I later realized that Loung Ung herself was a Scoville fellow. I also watched a film called “The Act of Killing”, which was a documentary that exposed the genocide against alleged communists in Indonesia under the authoritarian regime of Suharto. When I read the book and watched the film, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career that focused on advocating for human rights and atrocity prevention.

Despite my degree in international studies, I still lacked the foreign policy experience that was necessary to break into the field, making me very anxious about what my prospective career would look like by the time I was in my third year of college. Thankfully, one of my professors introduced me to the Scoville Fellowship, which would allow people like me, who did not have experience in DC, to spend time working with a foreign policy organization. Receiving this fellowship and being able to work at Win Without War Education Fund, a progressive foreign policy organization, has given me the invaluable opportunity to expand my portfolio and experience the realities of working in foreign policy. 

Through the fellowship, I have worked on an extensive portfolio. My main focuses are tracking the humanitarian crises in the occupied Palestinian territories, researching multilateral cooperation between the U.S., Mexico, and China in counternarcotic operations, and the complicity of U.S. firearms in atrocities against migrants in Mexico. Alongside these projects, I have attended meetings with partner organizations, including meetings on refugee resettlement, the impact of sanctions on forced displacement, and arms sales to Israel. 

Aside from working in the field, the fellowship also grants me access to diverse networks and opportunities. The mentorship that current fellows have with board members and alumni has been so helpful in navigating the field. My alumni mentor was instrumental in providing me advice on the best ways to take advantage of the fellowship and what I should do during my time. My board mentor has helped me identify the most important skills I should work on during the fellowship and how to present myself more professionally.

One of the most memorable events that the fellowship organized was a tour of the East Wing of the White House, which was a surreal experience – one in which I fully realized how lucky I was to have received such a fellowship. In addition, the fellowship provided a grant to the fellows that allowed us to speak at a high school or a university about the fellowship and how to enter the field as a recent graduate. It was gratifying to be able to speak to university students about working in foreign policy when just a year ago, I was in their shoes and figuring out what to do after graduation.

Prior to the fellowship, I knew that I was interested in working in human rights, but I had no clue what I wanted to specialize in. The most valuable thing that this fellowship offers is the flexibility to pursue projects in tandem with working on the issues of your chosen organization, and, as such, I was able to conduct research projects on migration and forced displacement. In doing so, I now aspire to pursue this as a career. This fellowship has allowed me to learn so much and reinforces that the best way to understand the foreign policy field is to gain hands-on experience. Going forward, I hope to leverage the experience and connections that I have gained from the fellowship to continue a career in international relations, specifically in migration and humanitarianism.

Sana Motorwala is a Fall 2024 Scoville Fellow at the Win Without War Education Fund.