Sabrina Acloque, Esq.
I am an artist and a lawyer. A musician and a dancer, a student and an educator. I am a Boston, Massachusetts native and a citizen of this world. I love writing, and I love bringing people together to discuss complex issues that affect us as a society.
My academic formation came from a small private school in Boston. I later went to Boston Latin School, where I studied many great subjects, but some of my favorites were French, Latin, and English (which comes as no surprise to those who know me well).
I attended Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and graduated with a major in Government and a concentration in International Relations. In the spring of my junior year, I studied in Paris at Sciences Po, formally known as L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. I lived with a French host family and gained three amazing host sisters and a brother. I made numerous American and international friends, and Paris will always be the place where we first met and where our friendship came alive. I still talk to many of these friends today.
While going to Europe was my first transatlantic journey from the United States, going to the Dominican Republic was my second. Barely 24 hours after my college graduation, I flew to the Dominican Republic to complete the latter part of my course called Culture and Society of the Dominican Republic. In the D.R., I visited schools, rural villages, government leaders, and Haitians and Dominico-Haitians living in sugar cane communities, called bateyes. It was in the D.R. where I witnessed the daily struggles that some of the world's poorest citizens endure just to survive. At that point, I realized that my mission to create equality of opportunity would not be limited to those living inside the U.S. I wanted to make an impact on people here at home and on those around the world.
Thus, before going to law school, I worked as a paralegal at Greater Boston Legal Services, and represented indigent clients facing eviction, those denied access to public housing, and those needing access to health insurance and food stamps benefits. While a student at Boston College Law School, I worked at several organizations in the U.S. and abroad to promote international human rights. These include the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration in Washington, D.C., the Legal Resources Centre in Accra, Ghana and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. I also worked in the Prosecutor's Office at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, Netherlands. At the ICTY, I conducted research to help prosecutors hold those accused of committing genocide and other war crimes accountable for their acts during the Yugoslav Wars, which occurred in the 1990s. You can read more about my reflections on what it was like to work and study abroad here.
As an attorney, I have worked to ensure that people in our local communities can realize the rights that are afforded to them by our domestic civil rights laws and international human rights laws, such as the basic right to equality. In this vein, I have investigated numerous discrimination claims - filed by people of all backgrounds, orientations and abilities - under local, state and federal laws in areas such as housing, employment and places of public accommodation. I have also conducted trainings to educate the general public about their rights under anti-discrimination laws and for businesses so they understand how not to run afoul of anti-discrimination laws.
Furthermore, as a consultant, I have trained various groups, including students, teachers and other professionals on ways to create inclusive school and work cultures. I also train members of local and national law enforcement on various inclusive policing strategies. It has been a privilege to do this work, to get to know people of all backgrounds and to have honest conversations about difficult topics that affect us as a society and at the community and personal levels. In my law enforcement trainings, it has been amazing to speak with officers who are dedicated to public service and who enter the profession to make positive differences in our society. These officers are out there, and I hope to continue bridging the gap between officers and the community, so that we have a system based on trust and one in which everyone feels safe and protected.
Now, the artist in me cannot close without speaking about my passion for poetry. I process a lot of what's happening in our society through writing. I find poetry and writing, in general, to be very cathartic. My poem, "Innocence Lost," was published by Moonstone Press in Save Ukraine, an anthology of poems that reflect on the war in Ukraine that began in 2022 and its impacts. To learn more about my poetry, please visit my website here. To read my thought pieces on various other topics, please click here.
Finally, because I am indebted to the education I received, which has opened my eyes and allowed me to experience many different parts of the world, I have been involved in a number of education initiatives to provide opportunities for students. These include reviewing data to close the achievement gap in the Cambridge public schools, speaking to middle- and high-school students about what a career in law entails, and serving on a scholarship review committee for high-achieving students across the United States.
It is my dream to live in a world in which peace prevails, both domestically and internationally. It is my dream to live in a world in which we can learn to love and be ourselves, connect with others, and explore more of what's around us. And finally, it is my dream to live in a world in which everyone has the opportunity to achieve their potential. All of this requires us to have hard conversations and to undo some of the harmful lessons we've been taught about many things. It's not easy stuff, but with commitment, we move closer to understanding and to making this reality possible.
For more information about the programs that have shaped me, please visit My Programs. For more information about the presentations I have given, and community discussions I have led or been a part of, please see my Speaking Engagements page. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I hope you enjoy your experience on this site, and that you are inspired to use your talents to paint the world in the beautiful ways that you envision.
And remember to have fun in the pursuit of your passions. Always.
My academic formation came from a small private school in Boston. I later went to Boston Latin School, where I studied many great subjects, but some of my favorites were French, Latin, and English (which comes as no surprise to those who know me well).
I attended Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and graduated with a major in Government and a concentration in International Relations. In the spring of my junior year, I studied in Paris at Sciences Po, formally known as L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. I lived with a French host family and gained three amazing host sisters and a brother. I made numerous American and international friends, and Paris will always be the place where we first met and where our friendship came alive. I still talk to many of these friends today.
While going to Europe was my first transatlantic journey from the United States, going to the Dominican Republic was my second. Barely 24 hours after my college graduation, I flew to the Dominican Republic to complete the latter part of my course called Culture and Society of the Dominican Republic. In the D.R., I visited schools, rural villages, government leaders, and Haitians and Dominico-Haitians living in sugar cane communities, called bateyes. It was in the D.R. where I witnessed the daily struggles that some of the world's poorest citizens endure just to survive. At that point, I realized that my mission to create equality of opportunity would not be limited to those living inside the U.S. I wanted to make an impact on people here at home and on those around the world.
Thus, before going to law school, I worked as a paralegal at Greater Boston Legal Services, and represented indigent clients facing eviction, those denied access to public housing, and those needing access to health insurance and food stamps benefits. While a student at Boston College Law School, I worked at several organizations in the U.S. and abroad to promote international human rights. These include the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration in Washington, D.C., the Legal Resources Centre in Accra, Ghana and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. I also worked in the Prosecutor's Office at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, Netherlands. At the ICTY, I conducted research to help prosecutors hold those accused of committing genocide and other war crimes accountable for their acts during the Yugoslav Wars, which occurred in the 1990s. You can read more about my reflections on what it was like to work and study abroad here.
As an attorney, I have worked to ensure that people in our local communities can realize the rights that are afforded to them by our domestic civil rights laws and international human rights laws, such as the basic right to equality. In this vein, I have investigated numerous discrimination claims - filed by people of all backgrounds, orientations and abilities - under local, state and federal laws in areas such as housing, employment and places of public accommodation. I have also conducted trainings to educate the general public about their rights under anti-discrimination laws and for businesses so they understand how not to run afoul of anti-discrimination laws.
Furthermore, as a consultant, I have trained various groups, including students, teachers and other professionals on ways to create inclusive school and work cultures. I also train members of local and national law enforcement on various inclusive policing strategies. It has been a privilege to do this work, to get to know people of all backgrounds and to have honest conversations about difficult topics that affect us as a society and at the community and personal levels. In my law enforcement trainings, it has been amazing to speak with officers who are dedicated to public service and who enter the profession to make positive differences in our society. These officers are out there, and I hope to continue bridging the gap between officers and the community, so that we have a system based on trust and one in which everyone feels safe and protected.
Now, the artist in me cannot close without speaking about my passion for poetry. I process a lot of what's happening in our society through writing. I find poetry and writing, in general, to be very cathartic. My poem, "Innocence Lost," was published by Moonstone Press in Save Ukraine, an anthology of poems that reflect on the war in Ukraine that began in 2022 and its impacts. To learn more about my poetry, please visit my website here. To read my thought pieces on various other topics, please click here.
Finally, because I am indebted to the education I received, which has opened my eyes and allowed me to experience many different parts of the world, I have been involved in a number of education initiatives to provide opportunities for students. These include reviewing data to close the achievement gap in the Cambridge public schools, speaking to middle- and high-school students about what a career in law entails, and serving on a scholarship review committee for high-achieving students across the United States.
It is my dream to live in a world in which peace prevails, both domestically and internationally. It is my dream to live in a world in which we can learn to love and be ourselves, connect with others, and explore more of what's around us. And finally, it is my dream to live in a world in which everyone has the opportunity to achieve their potential. All of this requires us to have hard conversations and to undo some of the harmful lessons we've been taught about many things. It's not easy stuff, but with commitment, we move closer to understanding and to making this reality possible.
For more information about the programs that have shaped me, please visit My Programs. For more information about the presentations I have given, and community discussions I have led or been a part of, please see my Speaking Engagements page. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I hope you enjoy your experience on this site, and that you are inspired to use your talents to paint the world in the beautiful ways that you envision.
And remember to have fun in the pursuit of your passions. Always.