For two students this spring, a project begun in a central New York classroom led all the way to Peru. Tamara Hoflejzer ’13 and Patricia Ciccone ’13 are participants in the Law School’s Labor Law Clinic led by Professor Angela Cornell. This March they traveled to Lima to research the rights of the country’s textile workers.

“Working on this clinical project has been one of the most valuable experiences of law school,” said Hoflejzer. “It was a great opportunity to put theory into practice and contribute to the protection of workers’ rights.”

While in Lima, Hoflejzer and Ciccone conducted interviews with textile workers, union leaders, and union attorneys. They also met with government officials and representatives of nonprofit organizations to discuss workers’ access to the judicial system and the effectiveness of legal remedies for workers’ grievances. Through these interviews, the students explored freedom of association in Peru, as well as Peruvian administrative and judicial processes.

“Having the opportunity to visit Peru and witness the unrelenting passion and conviction of the Peruvian textile workers was an amazing and rewarding experience that I will never forget,” says Ciccone. “We put so much time and work into this project, and we have gotten so much more out of the experience in terms of personal and professional growth.”

She adds, “Our investigative work in Peru is a reflection of our commitment not only to helping the Peruvian workers but also to contributing to the advancement of workers’ labor rights everywhere.”