As both the faculty director and founder of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide (CCDPW) and the director of the Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, Sandra Babcock not only involves her students, she centers them as equal partners in her advocacy efforts. Her courses, internships, research initiatives and job opportunities provide aspiring human rights defenders with practical skills and prepare them for movement work in a variety of spaces. 

Students accompany Babcock on all her work trips to visit clients, providing the students with once-in-a-lifetime experiences like bringing food and medical supplies to a women’s prison in rural Tanzania or meeting with clients on death row in the United States. These formative experiences are often the highlight of students’ academic careers, and they impact the path their professional careers take for years to come.