RBC alumnus to become first Haitian Knight-Kennessy scholar at Stanford

Exciting alumni news: our graduate Gil Sander Joseph (RBC 2019-21) has just been announced one of the 2025 Knight-Hennessy Scholars by Stanford University, where he will be pursuing his master’s in international policy. We congratulate him for this achievement!

Gil aspires to work at the intersection of policy research and legal advocacy to advance equitable global migration governance. He is particularly interested in designing policies that ensure safe and dignified mobility for migrants while balancing economic priorities and national sovereignty. In the long term, he hopes to contribute to the restructuring of Haiti’s foreign policy.

“It was on a RBC school trip to the Basel Museum Night that I first felt compelled to work in the field of migration. At one stop, there was an exhibition dedicated to the Syrian migrant crisis. I became interested in the migration experience of my peers and observed parallels revealing structural inequalities. I learned a lot at RBC, both from Global Affairs and informal conversations with my peers – such diversity of experiences is very hard to find elsewhere! Writing my extended essay on a novel about migration from the perspective of people from the Global South and the Global North sparked my interest in migration policy, an interest that has not waned since.”