Benjamin Sanchez Pla

Benjamin Sanchez Pla (he/him) is a senior at Yale majoring in Political Science with certificates in Human Rights and Spanish. His senior thesis explores migration governance and NGO sustainability in Southern Europe, analyzing how Spain and Italy have adapted to declining U.S. humanitarian funding. Previously, Benjamin conducted independent research on the European migration crisis while studying abroad in Switzerland, including field interviews with international organizations and refugee camp staff.

At Yale, Benjamin has served as a Yale College Council Senator and Director of Cultural and Religious Policy, where he successfully reinstated the Human Rights Certificate for undergraduates to expand programming on migration and human rights. He also mentored first-year Latinx students as a Peer Liaison for La Casa Cultural. Professionally, Benjamin has interned with the United Nations Development Programme in New York, reviewing country-level proposals on human rights and security sector reform; with the U.S. State Department; and with a bipartisan lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. Raised in a Cuban-American household in Miami, Benjamin is particularly interested in Latin America and Iberia’s shared histories of migration, displacement, and transatlantic approaches to human rights and development. He hopes to pursue a career in diplomacy and human rights work.