King McShane Award in Civil Liberties recipient: Kiana Gauthier

Meet Kiana Gauthier! Originally from Ottawa, Kiana is pursuing a BA in Law with a concentration in Transnational Law and Human Rights. Kiana is also this year’s recipient of the King McShane Award in Civil Liberties.

What lead you to pursue your degree at Carleton? I knew I wanted to study human rights, and Carleton is one of the only universities in Ontario with a human rights program! What made it a particularly easy choice among the other options is that it is located in Ottawa, meaning that I wouldn’t have to deal with the stress of moving to another city. However, what solidified Carleton as my choice of university was the interdisciplinary nature of its law program. Because of my interest in human rights, I appreciate how human rights and social justice-based perspectives are incorporated into the law program, as are perspectives from other disciplines such as sociology and criminology, rather than the focus being exclusively on legal perspectives. 

What is your favourite part of the program? The interdisciplinary nature of my program was its biggest draw for me. I had originally planned to study exclusively in human rights before deciding to study law alongside it, so I really appreciate being about learn about important issues through a human rights or social justice-oriented perspective, rather than just purely through legal perspectives.

What are you hoping to do after graduation? Admittedly, I’m still not quite sure what I want to do after I graduate, but whatever path I choose to take, I hope that my degree provides me with the skills I need to succeed!

Any advice for incoming students? My biggest piece of advice would be to not get overwhelmed by the heavy workload. That might sound easier said than done, but while the workload might look daunting at first, it’s often not as scary as it looks when you get to it. Remember, you can do it if you try!