The BHRP is thrilled to have Tsering Dhongthog with us this summer as our 2010 summer intern. Tsering is passionate about human rights, has lived in India, Tibet and China, and has worked for a range of organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Tibet Justice Center. Please see below, to learn more about Tsering in her own words.

My name is Tsering Dhongthog and I am joining the Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program as a summer intern. Although I am a native of the Pacific Northwest, I attended a refugee boarding school in India and have always been deeply interested in human rights issues. While a college student at the University of Washington, I had the chance to spend my summers working with human rights organizations like the Tibet Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, and the International Rescue Committee. In 2006, after graduating college, I moved to Beijing and interned for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) where I worked with refugees fleeing violence in their home countries.

After nearly a year in China, I returned to the U.S. to pursue a master’s degree in China Studies at Columbia University. Through my courses and interactions with professors and visiting scholars, I became increasingly interested in the impact new social media and the internet in general has on civil society in China, especially in politically sensitive Tibet. The 2008 March protests across the Tibetan plateau was widely publicized in the international community, thanks in large part to social media sites that quickly generated first-hand accounts, photos, and videos of the turbulent scene. This demonstrated for me the growing role that the internet plays in social movements not only in China but all around the world.

I am currently a second-year law student at the University of Michigan. Last summer I interned in Washington D.C. for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) where I researched and wrote on issues like freedom of expression and rule of law. At law school I have taken courses such as Mass Media, International Investment Law, and Foreign Corporate Governance. I have also written papers on these areas of law including Google’s China censorship issue, and on the growing trend of companies incorporating human rights into their corporate governance charters, using Starwood Hotels and Resorts as a case study. So when I learned about the legal internship with the Business & Human Rights Program at Yahoo! I was excited to find an opportunity that combines my interest in human rights and corporate law. I just hope I can contribute as much as I know I will absorb from this amazing opportunity!