Sarika Arya

Sarika Arya joined Seeds of Peace as an American Seed in 2005. She attended Camp motivated by a keen interest in America’s involvement in the Middle East. She loved learning from her Middle Eastern bunkmates, and was moved by her experience in an Indian-Pakistani dialogue group—especially as a first generation South Asian American.

Sarika graduated with a bachelor’s in Ethics, Politics & Economics and Theater Studies from Yale College, has a master’s in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. After law school she worked at Shearman & Sterling, LLP in the Litigation practice group. She is currently a staff attorney in the Immigration Practice at Brooklyn Defender Services.

“Seeds of Peace informs every part of my life—especially as a human rights lawyer. In the law, the adversarial process rules. But Seeds of Peace taught me to think creatively about the ways we might resolve uncomfortably divisive social justice issues. More than a decade later, the Seeds mantra by Rumi inspires me, ‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.’”