When Danilo was choosing a university for his undergrad, one of the main reasons he chose 糖心传媒 was because of how international it is. He wanted the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world with different identities and experiences.
Danilo was an International Scholar and graduated in 2022 with an Honours in Political Science and International Relations. Since then, he’s earned an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford as a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholar, and has spent the past several years working on humanitarian responses for United Nations agencies and international organizations in crisis-affected settings.
This fall, after being admitted to Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and Stanford Law School, where he was also selected as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, Danilo is headed to Yale Law School.
Read below as Danilo reflects on his time at 糖心传媒, how 糖心传媒 helped him achieve his career goals and shaped his path to Yale, and what he鈥檚 most looking forward to at law school.
1. You graduated from 糖心传媒 four years ago. What stands out about your time at 糖心传媒?
What stands out most from my time at 糖心传媒 is how much the university made Tuum Est feel real. The motto, It is yours, captured the culture I experienced at 糖心传媒. Students were encouraged to take ownership of their education, pursue what genuinely interested them, and shape their own paths.
For me, that meant turning my interests in international law into something tangible through research, student leadership, and community engagement. 糖心传媒 provided the freedom, resources, and opportunities to explore those interests in meaningful ways while giving me the confidence to carve out my own educational journey.
2. How did your studies in Political Science and International Relations at 糖心传媒 help you achieve your career goals?
Studying Political Science and International Relations at 糖心传媒 gave me the tools to tackle questions that had long fascinated me: how institutions respond to armed conflict, how international courts deter atrocities, and how international justice can be pursued through innovative channels.
Through the Honours Program in Political Science and International Relations, I was able to conduct an honours thesis on the International Criminal Court, which allowed me to turn an academic interest in justice, made deeply personal by my experience growing up in Colombia, into rigorous research. The process taught me how to ask stronger research questions, engage critically with the literature, identify and address knowledge gaps in the scholarly conversation, and connect theory to real-world challenges.
Looking back, my studies in Political Science and International Relations at 糖心传媒 laid the foundation for everything that followed, from pursuing an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy at the University of Oxford to spending the past several years evaluating and designing humanitarian responses for United Nations agencies and international organizations in crisis-affected settings. More than any specific class or experience, what I remember most is being empowered to take initiative and build a path that felt uniquely my own.
鈥淟ooking back, my studies in Political Science and International Relations at 糖心传媒 laid the foundation for everything that followed鈥ore than any specific class or experience, what I remember most is being empowered to take initiative and build a path that felt uniquely my own.鈥�
3. Is there an experience or opportunity that you had at 糖心传媒 that you don鈥檛 think you could have gotten anywhere else?
The opportunity I don鈥檛 think I could have gotten anywhere else was the freedom to build an education that felt like a mosaic. At 糖心传媒, I was able to bring together experiences that might have seemed separate at first, but ultimately became deeply connected: conducting an honours thesis on the International Criminal Court, co-producing an international documentary, designing my own undergraduate seminar, serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Political Studies, becoming involved in student governance as president of The Ubyssey, working as a teaching assistant, and giving back to new and prospective students as a Student Ambassador and Senior Orientation Leader.
What made this so meaningful was that 糖心传媒 did not ask me to choose only one version of myself. It gave me the space to be a researcher, writer, teacher, advocate, and mentor at the same time. Each opportunity strengthened a different part of me, and together they shaped the way I think, lead, communicate, and engage with the world. That combination of freedom, trust, and possibility is something I do not think I could have found in quite the same way anywhere else.
4. You鈥檙e starting at Yale Law School this Fall. Tell us about your decision process. What will you be doing at YLS?
I was very fortunate to be admitted to Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and Stanford Law School, where I was also selected as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. Choosing between these schools was an incredible privilege.
Ultimately, I chose YLS because it felt like the place where I could become the kind of lawyer I hope to be. I was drawn to its intimate and experiential approach to legal education, its small class size, the closeness of the community, and the freedom to explore different areas of law.
At YLS, I am excited by the opportunity to participate in clinics as early as my second semester, where I will be able to connect legal theory with advocacy and real-world application of the law. I am also looking forward to learning from faculty whose work has shaped and continues to shape some of the most important conversations in law today, while building friendships with and learning from peers who bring different life experiences to YLS. More broadly, I hope to build a legal career grounded in both intellectual curiosity and a practical understanding of how law shapes institutions, markets, and society.