Those who’ve been on the European circuit for a decade or two might remember a small, dark-haired girl walking around the showgrounds with a Shetland pony, offering rides in exchange for donations to JustWorld. As she grew older, Mia Marzotto ran horseless horse shows, sold merchandise at shows, hosted dinners and drinks for donations, and set up partnerships to benefit JustWorld.

A love of horses runs in the Marzotto family–and so does a desire to give back. “My grandmother used to breed horses and was an extraordinary horsewoman herself, and my mother was a rider,” Marzotto, now 33, said. “Some of my first memories are on horses or related to horses.”

When her mother started a show jumping facility in Italy, largely inspired by the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center she’d visited in Wellington, Florida, she wanted her business to have a humanitarian component to it, something that went beyond the horses. 

“My family has a foundation that supports social projects in Italy,” Marzotto said. “This charitable side of things has always been part and parcel of my family.”

Marzotto met Jessica Newman, Founder of JustWorld International, when she was 11 at her mother’s jumping facility in Italy. She enjoyed brainstorming ideas for fundraising and set out to raise the profile of the organization in Europe.

But Marzotto put riding on pause as she earned her degree at the American University of Paris. “In my first year at university, I realized I had a free summer, which had never happened with horses,” she said. 

She took the opportunity to volunteer at People Improvement Organization (PIO), JustWorld’s partner project in Cambodia, returned the following year, and then went to JustWorld’s project in Guatemala the year after. Her first year, she helped PIO with English classes, daily scheduling of activities and small events. “When I returned I was more involved in fundraising, looking for other donors beyond JustWorld, writing grant applications, and identifying potential partners,” she said. In Guatemala, she also helped with fundraising and communications. 

“My involvement moved from me being a traditional rider Ambassador to being a volunteer at the projects,” Marzotto said. 

After graduating with her first degree, she helped organize JustWorld activities at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in France. She then went on to work for other nonprofit organizations like Oxfam and Translators Without Borders in countries affected by war and natural disasters and earned a master’s degree in international affairs from The New School in New York.

In 2021-22, she came back to JustWorld, working for a few months as a consultant on European operations. She then returned to school to achieve a master of laws degree at the University of Essex in international human rights law.

“My involvement [with JustWorld] has taken different shapes, but I think part of it has to do with my own personal progress with being involved in the humanitarian and human rights sectors, first as an observer, then a volunteer and now a full-fledged professional,” she said.

Listening skills, language skills

Today, Marzotto works as the Whistleblower Protection Program Manager at The Signals Network, a 501c (3) nonprofit organization that supports whistleblowers who have shared public interest information to the press. 

“We provide all-encompassing support to whistleblowers, people who are concerned about wrongdoing at their workplace by a current or former employer,” Marzotto said. “We help them navigate what can be a very difficult journey, the decision to speak up on issues around public safety, corruption, products that might cause problems, forced labor, and other human rights violations, across the world. Different countries have different protections, so often whistleblowers face great risks in speaking up. We’re there to try to help manage those risks and ensure those responsible for wrongdoing are held accountable.”

Starting with JustWorld, Marzotto said she learned that one of the key components to human rights work is active listening. “Listening to whoever it is that one is trying to help, working in a way that puts the concerns or ideas and capacities of the person or population or group one is trying to help [at the forefront], so that listening first is very important, to not act based on biases or preconceived notions of what you think might be right thing to do but instead to consult those you are trying to help,” she said.

In nonprofit or human rights work, Marzotto said, there’s no one career path. She said some professionals focus on thematic issues: children’s rights or the environment, for instance, while other professionals focus on skills, such as communications and advocacy, which can be applied in many different contexts or issues.

She encouraged anyone considering a similar career to pursue language skills. “Depending on where one wants to work: English, French and Spanish,” she said. “But I would encourage people to go beyond that, in order to listen and ask the right questions. It comes from being able to communicate with people in their own language in a way that’s culturally sensitive.”

And now Marzotto has returned to the show ring after a 12-year hiatus from horses. “It has been such a great way to decompress from my work and other responsibilities, so I’m trying to find the time for it as much as possible,” she said. “Of course, I am simply competing in the small, amateur classes but still enjoying myself and all the benefits that having a moment of pure concentration and unison with a horse can bring. I am very grateful for my trainer and team at the stables who help me keep my two horses in shape when I’m too busy, and for my mom with whom I share the love for horses and who is as supportive of me riding now as she was when I was a teenager.”

Working with JustWorld, especially for young riders, she said, offers an opportunity to gain exposure to humanitarian and human rights work, although she said volunteer and professional experience are quite different. “It’s great volunteer experience, which can also serve as a foundation in other sectors, other job scenarios, as well,” she said.

A common thread in her career has been developing meaningful relationships with the people sharing in the work, starting at JustWorld. “One of the things I cherish the most is the people I’ve met along the way, and that started with JustWorld and the many other Ambassadors I was working and volunteering with when I was 12, all the way to when I was at the projects, and continue to meet,” she said. “You really do have great people in this sector, working for nonprofits whether they are big or small, and that’s one of the things that keeps me going.”