Golden Gate University School of Law
Angela Haren Kelley $5000
Angela's passion for marine and coastal protection led her to law school. A graduate of UC Davis, she earned a master's degree in environmental and natural resource policy from UCLA and worked in the environmental nonprofit sector for nearly a decade. While in law school, she has worked in the Natural Resources Section of the California Office of the Attorney General and was an extern for Magistrate Judge James Larson. This past summer, Angela interned with the Natural Resources Defense Council. She plans to pursue a career focused on marine conservation.

Luthien L. Niland $5000

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Luthien volunteered on organic farms in Thailand, New Zealand, and Laos. Inspired by the dedication to the environment that she found in her host countries, she returned home to Wisconsin to work for the Department of Natural Resources to continue to pursue her interest in environmental law and policy. In law school, Luthien has volunteered with the Homeless Advocacy Project and Legal Aid of Marin and interned with the California Public Utilities Commission, the Sierra Club, and Golden Gate's Environmental Law and Justice Clinic.

John F. Kennedy University School of Law
Michelle Domingo $2500
Michelle believes that violence against women is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. She has been involved with numerous organizations that provide services to women and minorities, including serving as a counselor to female victims of rape, abuse, and violence with San Francisco Women Against Rape – an experience she found fulfilling yet frustrating because she was unable to help her clients in a legal forum. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Michelle is committed to becoming an advocate for women who are victims of violence and ultimately aspires to serve in a district attorney's office to seek justice for them.

Loyola Law School
Jamaica Abare $2500
A graduate of Biola University with a master's degree in religious studies from Claremont Graduate University, Jamaica has made public service a guiding principle in her life. She has been active as a mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters and serves as board chair of DOOR, an urban service and educational nonprofit. Four years ago she moved from the suburbs to the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles to reinforce her commitment to helping the poor. Jamaica's goal after law school is to become an advocate for homeless individuals or at-risk youth.

Deborah E. Bergman $2500

Deborah's interest in the law stems from the three years she provided free legal and social services to detained immigrants in Arizona with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. She was originally inspired to work with immigrants because of her family's own migration story: her paternal great-grandparents fled from Germany due to religious persecution, and her maternal great-grandfather fled Moldova before the Holocaust. A graduate of Vassar College, Deborah worked for the Immigrants Rights Project at the ACLU of Southern California this past summer.

Brendan Hamme $7500 — Jim Pfeiffer Scholar

Recognizing that minority youth were being disproportionately swept into the criminal justice system's revolving door, Brendan launched the Juvenile Rights Project at Loyola Law School as a first-year student. This program brings law students to high school classrooms to teach students their legal rights and tips for navigating encounters with the police to avoid escalating the situation. Brendan is the chair of Loyola's ACLU chapter and has worked with the Southern California ACLU affiliate to secure the rights of students on their campuses. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Brendan plans to pursue a post-graduate fellowship with the ACLU.

Stanford Law School
Meredith A. Johnson $2500
Meredith's first experience working with a vulnerable population took place in Uruguay, where she volunteered at a center for low-income youth for a year after graduating from St. Olaf College. She now volunteers at Stanford's Domestic Violence Pro Bono Program, helping survivors of domestic violence apply for restraining orders. Her internship at the National Women's Law Center demonstrated to her how macro public policy issues affect the victims of domestic violence. Meredith spent this past summer working on immigrants' rights issues as an intern at the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project.

Shira Levine $2500

Shira's commitment to immigrants' rights began when she taught a bilingual first grade class in the Bronx and saw the hurdles that immigration-related issues posed to her students and their families. Last fall, she worked full time in Stanford's Immigrants' Rights Clinic, successfully preventing the deportation of her client. Shira has also worked on immigration cases at the Legal Aid Society of New York and fought workplace abuse against low-wage workers as an intern at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Shira aspires to be an advocate for low-income immigrants.

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall)
Swati Prakash $2500
After graduating from Harvard University, Swati did graduate work in environmental health at Harvard's School of Public Health. She then moved to Harlem to work with a community-based organization to reduce air pollution and improve housing conditions in low-income neighborhoods of northern Manhattan. She later moved to the Bay Area to work on environmental health policy with the Pacific Institute. In law school, she is exploring the larger issues of racial justice that originally inspired her to become an activist, in part through an internship with the Equal Justice Society.

Eve Weissman $7500 — Milstein Adelman Scholar

After graduating from Vassar College and spending four years working with New Jersey Citizen Action, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, Eve enrolled in law school to be a more effective advocate for marginalized and disenfranchised people. Her career goal is to advocate for policies that facilitate economic and workplace security, such as affordable health care, job security, and a living wage. In law school, Eve has worked at the Workers' Rights Clinic of the East Bay Community Law Center and the California Asylum Representation Clinic of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.

Evan B. White $7500 — Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP Scholar

Following his undergraduate studies at Vassar, Evan launched a public interest career in direct service, working as a housing rights counselor serving thousands of low-income tenants each year. As he became a supervisor, Evan developed a deeper understanding of the importance of policy change to help his clients. He is now pursuing dual degrees from Berkeley's law and public policy schools to develop the tools to advocate for underprivileged communities on a larger scale. Evan has interned at the Office of Management and Budget, PolicyLink, and the National Housing Law Project, and serves as a teaching assistant for former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

University of California, Davis, School of Law (King Hall)
James Beck $7500 — Latham & Watkins Scholar
James became interested in working as a public defender at a young age, when his family hosted foster children. He saw first-hand the struggles of his foster siblings, many of whom were caught up in the juvenile justice system. As a lawyer, James hopes to give support and respect to a group of people who have been largely ignored. In law school, James has served as a law clerk with the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Sacramento and with the Public Defender Service in Washington, DC. James is a graduate of Amherst College and, prior to law school, worked as a litigation paralegal in Minneapolis.

Michael Wu $2500

A graduate of UC San Diego, Michael has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to public service. He has mentored middle and high school students with disabilities through Club Xcite, LLC, conducted intake interviews with clients at Disability Rights California, and, as a law student, worked on policy advocacy at the Asian Law Caucus, conducted legal research for Public Advocates, and served as a law clerk in the Yolo County Office of the Public Defender and the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office. Michael aspires to pursue a career as a public defender.

University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Nedda Black $7500 — Board of Directors Scholar
Nedda's desire to become a public interest lawyer grew out of her years as a social worker in New York City and, before that, as a teacher. Prior to law school, she worked as a trauma counselor in an HIV clinic and volunteered in emergency rooms with victims of sexual and domestic violence. At Hastings, Nedda's commitment to public service has deepened, and she is now the managing director of Homeless Legal Services, an organization providing legal services to the homeless at a local shelter. Nedda earned her bachelor's degree from Cal State University, Fullerton, and her master's degree in social work from New York University.

University of California, Irvine, School of Law
Emmanuelle Soichet $2500
Prior to law school, Emmanuelle worked as a spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the board president of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her experience on the front lines of education politics and reform led her to intern with Public Counsel's impact litigation unit, which was engaged in a landmark suit to protest a group of high-poverty schools from disproportionate teacher lay-offs. A graduate of Princeton, Emmanuelle spent the past summer working at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco. She hopes to pursue a career in impact litigation focused on education equity.

University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
Margaret Buitrago $2500
The daugher of a Spanish-speaking single mother who worked two jobs, Margaret became the first person in her family to attend college. She excelled at the University San Francisco, where she was a three-time recipient of the Holstein Scholarship for Public Service. In law school, Margaret has served as president of La Raza Law Students Association and has worked at La Raza Centro Legal, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, and the US Attorney's Office. Margaret is interested in initially working as a prosecutor, with the long-term goal of becoming a judge or legislator.

Brittany Goodnight $2500

Brittany aspires to have a public interest legal career that includes civil rights, plaintiff-side employment law, immigration, and indigent criminal defense litigation. She is co-chair of the Violence Against Women Clinic and the symposium editor for the UCLA Law Review. Brittany has clerked for Justice Laurence Rubin of the California Court of Appeal and interned for the Office of the Federal Public Defender. After graduating from the University of Washington, where she was student body president, Brittany worked as a legislative aide in the Washington State Legislature and as a public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest.

Christian Kurpiewski $2500

For four years prior to law school, Christian worked as a housing advocate for HomeStart, Inc., a homeless services organization in Boston. As an advocate for the homeless, he decided to attend law school because he saw the impact that legal services lawyers had on his clients' lives. In law school, Christian serves as a board member of the UCLA chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild, chairs the Skid Row Housing Clinic, and has clerked for the National Housing Law Project and Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. Christian is a graduate of Santa Clara University.

Almas Tabassum Sayeed $2500

Almas has a deep and longstanding commitment to anti-poverty and economic development work. As a Fulbright Fellow, she worked for the European Corporation for Development and the Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, which serves low-income Palestinian women in Jerusalem. Upon her return to the United States, Almas worked as a policy analyst for the Center for American Progress, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, and the governor of New York. Almas graduated from the University of Kansas and completed graduate work at Hebrew University and the London School of Economics.

Siobhan Waldron $5000

Siobhan first became involved in public interest work as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, where she tutored children of Salvadoran immigrants and provided interpretation services for Spanish-speaking individuals seeking asylum. After graduation, she worked as a program coordinator for the Public Interest Clearinghouse (now OneJustice). In law school, Siobhan has focused her studies and activities to support her goal of becoming an immigration attorney at a legal services organization. She has coordinated two student-run legal aid clinics and interned with Public Counsel, the East Bay Community Law Center, and Centro Legal de la Raza.

University of Southern California Gould School of Law
KeAndra D. Dodds $2500
KeAndra is committed to a career in community development with an emphasis on affordable housing, sustainable development, and equitable economic development. This commitment grew out of her academic work in urban studies as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania and her work experiences with the ACLU and Urban Strategies, Inc. In law school, KeAndra has been a law clerk at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, a research assistant for a real estate and land use planning professor, and an intern for the Housing Rights Center.

Anna Lee $7500 — Daniel S. Goodman Scholar

Anna's commitment to public service is long and deep. After graduating from the University of Virginia, Anna taught at an elementary school that primarily served a homeless shelter through Teach for America. She then received a Fulbright Scholarship, teaching English to more than 1,000 students in South Korea. In law school, Anna has served as president of the Public Interest Law Foundation and volunteered with Public Counsel, the Mesereau Free Legal Clinic, and the Esperanza Immigration Rights Project. Discussions with prosecutors through Korean American Bar Association events sparked Anna's interest in pursuing criminal prosecution as a career.

University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
Etan Zaitsu $7500 — Seyfarth Shaw Scholar
Prior to law school, Etan worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations committed to community health, substance abuse treatment and prevention, and service to low-income families. His experience at a residential treatment program for substance abuse, first as a member of the program and then as a staff member, solidified his commitment to serving those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In law school, Etan has worked at Legal Services of Northern California, the Office of the Federal Defenders, and the Yolo County Public Defender's Office. Etan plans to pursue a career in indigent criminal defense.