{"id":151854,"date":"2025-09-15T14:28:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=151854"},"modified":"2025-09-15T12:33:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:33:21","slug":"ole-miss-student-selected-for-national-human-rights-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ole-miss-student-selected-for-national-human-rights-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Student Selected for National Human Rights Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Program supports future leaders in justice and advocacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Jordan Karnbach<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights<\/strong> advocacy organization has chosen University of Mississippi<\/strong> senior Tyren Boyd Jr., <\/strong>of Indianola, as a fellow in its leadership program that honors the late civil rights icon US Rep. John Lewis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0John Lewis Young Leaders program<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is a yearlong undergraduate fellowship that prepares college students for a future in community organizing and civic engagement. The program was established in 2017 and restructured in 2022 to honor Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyd, who is majoring in public policy leadership<\/a> and rhetoric, writing and speech communication<\/a>, joins 15 other university students from across the country in the 2025-26 cohort. Throughout the year, fellows engage their campus and local communities in human rights work through a capstone project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This yearlong fellowship gives me the opportunity to design a capstone project rooted in my home community of Sunflower County,” Boyd said. “My goal is to create a robust college and career readiness curriculum that complements what the Mississippi Department of Education already offers, while filling in the gaps that exist for students in underserved areas.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellows get support to ensure their success, including access to grassroots organizing workshops, mentorship from RFK Human Rights staff, financial support and access to a network of human rights professionals, peers and program alumni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program accepted only 3% of this year’s applicants, and Boyd is the first Ole Miss student in the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This year’s cohort is an extraordinary group of young people, and I’m inspired by their courage, kindness and commitment to making our country a more just and equitable place,” said Kerry Kennedy<\/strong>, president of\u00a0RFK Human Rights<\/a>. “I’m filled with hope as we welcome this next generation of leaders into the fold.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyd said he is overjoyed to be selected and ready to start work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I also plan to personally facilitate sessions and show young people from the Delta that they, too, can achieve their goals and pursue higher education free of financial barriers, just as I and many others have done,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boyd said he believes the Delta is often overlooked, and through the fellowship’s mentoring, funding and program support, he has a platform to act on the needs he has witnessed firsthand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is a true honor to join other change agents from across the country, and as the late Congressman John Lewis once said, I will continue to ‘keep up the good fight,'” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Program supports future leaders in justice and advocacy By Jordan Karnbach The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights advocacy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":151856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25263],"tags":[32602,32603,5,7067,4,32599,32600,655,32601],"class_list":["post-151854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-john-lewis-young-leaders-program","tag-kerry-kennedy","tag-mississippi","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-robert-f-kennedy-human-rights","tag-tyren-boyd-jr","tag-university-of-mississippi","tag-us-rep-john-lewis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Tyren-Boyd-Jr.jpg?fit=2262%2C1502&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151857,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151854\/revisions\/151857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}