41 receive Foundation scholarships
They donated their time to battered women, the elderly and immigrants. They
volunteered their services to environmental causes, to troubled juveniles, the
homeless and the disabled. The organizations benefiting from their good will
and fledgling expertise are too numerous to list.
For their efforts, 41 law students at 16 California law schools were awarded
scholarships by the Foundation of the State Bar this year.
In addition to financial need and academic achievement, the scholarship candidates
must demonstrate a commitment to public service.
This year's scholarships included three $7,500 exceptional merit awards, 14
$5,000 merit awards and 24 $2,500 scholarship awards, totaling $152,500. 2002
marks the 10th anni-versary of the scholarship program, and during that time,
$1,067,500 has been awarded to 261 students. The recipients were enrolled at
24 different law schools.
The Foundation of the State Bar seeks and provides funding for programs and
projects that educate the public about their rights and responsibilities under
the law, encourages ventures that increase access to the legal system for the
poor and middle class, and supports law-related causes. California lawyers may
contribute when they pay their bar dues by simply checking off a box on the
statement. Last year, attorneys contributed more than $800,000 to the foundation's
coffers.
The scholarships are underwritten by corporate sponsors MBNA and UPS.
This year's winners are:
Golden Gate University
Rocio A. Avila, $5,000, law clerk for Equal Rights Advocates and the National
Immigration Law Center, project director for San Francisco Urban Service Project.
JFK School of Law
Shannon Murphy-Teixeira, $2,500, member of Citizen's Task Force-Revitaliza-tion
Commit-tee, member of the Oakley Incorporation Committee.
Loyola Law School
Amy Freeman, $2,500, civil rights litigation intern for Western Center on Law
& Poverty, intern for California Women's Law Center; Laura Schiesl Goodwin,
$5,000, chapter chair of the California Public Interest and Research Group,
representative of the Public Interest Law Foundation, volunteer for Home-lessness
Prevention Project; Philip Koebel, $7,500, law clerk, Neighbor-hood Legal Services
of Los Ange-les, founding member of the Affordable Housing Action organization;
Kirsten Miller, $2,500, law clerk at the Disability Mediation Center, advocate/supervisor
for the General Relief Advocacy Project; Dominique C. Quevedo, $2,500, intern
with Protection & Advocacy Inc., social worker for Children's Rights Project
at the Public Counsel Law Center.
Monterey College of Law
Diana W. Rosenthal, $2,500, paralegal intern with Legal Services for Seniors,
volunteer with YWCA domestic violence program and Congregation Beth Israel.
New College School of Law
Alyse Ceirante, $2,500, law clerk for Bay Area Legal Aid, tutor for the Reading
Guidance Center, volunteer for the Coalition on Homelessness.
San Fernando College of Law
Cynthia Fisher, $2,500, director of client services for Continental Court Reporting,
counselor at Vineyard Homeless Outreach Program and aide to homebound seniors.
Santa Clara University School of Law
Melissa Dague, $2,500, summer clerk for the Contra Costa County District Attorney,
intern in the sex crimes and child abuse unit of the Mon-mouth County District
Attorney; Susan Hunt-McArthur, $2,500, music teacher in several schools, volunteer
with Project YEA!
Stanford Law School
Gladys Limon, $7,500, staff member at the Youth & Education Law Clinic, intern
with the ACLU of Southern California, volunteer for the East Palo Alto Commu-nity
Law Project; Erin O'Connell, $2,500, volunteer with the East Palo Alto Commu-nity
Law Project and the Streetlaw Program; Jonathan Sanders, $5,000, Stan-ford Law
Review and Stanford Journal of Law, Busi-ness and Finance, extern with the U.S.
Attorney; Elena Saxonhouse, $5,000, volunteer for Environmental Crimes Section
of U.S. Department of Justice, Stanford Streeet Law, Tutoring Plus, co-president
of Environmental Law Society; Jessica K. Steinberg, $5,000, law clerk for ABA's
Central and Eastern European Law Initiative, Kosovo, volunteer for the Immigrants'
Rights Project in East Palo Alto.
UCLA School of Law
Michelle L. Carey, $5,000, intern with Post Conviction Assistance Center and
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, supervisor for Building Up Los Angeles/
AmeriCorps; Pearl Del Rosario, $5,000, law clerk for Asian Pacific American
Legal Center, board of directors and tenant counselor for the Housing Rights
Committee of San Francisco; Bjorn Johnson, $5,000, law clerk with the Los Angeles
County Public Defender, teacher and tutor/mentor and volunteer educator at several
schools; Michael I. Marsh, $2,500, volunteer with the California Coalition for
Immigrant Rights and Services, La Raza Centro Legal, the Central American Resource
Center.
University of California, Berkeley - Boalt Hall
Hillary Ronen, $5,000, intern for Center for Constitu-tional Rights, legal
assistant for Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas; Daniela Yani, $5,000,
Human Rights Fellow for UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, Middle East Activists
Fellow for the Campaign for Reform of the World Bank, Italy.
University of California, Davis School of Law
Laura Slade Chiera, $2,500, law clerk for East Bay Community Law Center, volunteer
for Center for Justice and Accountabil-ity and Im-migrant Legal Resource Center;
Leslie E. Davis, $5,000, intern for Prison Law Offices, legal assistant for
Prisoners' Legal Services of New York.
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Beverly Dale, $2,500, intern with U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Overseas
Prosecutorial Development, Eurasia Divi-sion, volunteer for Court Appointed
Special Ad-vocate (CASA) Program; Anais V. Wallach, $5,000, intern for U.S.
Department of State, NATO and the National Law Journal, summer intern for Califor-nia
Court of Appeals.
University of San Diego School of Law
Janis L. Burnett, $2,500, intern for the San Diego Public Defender, small claims
mediator for the San Diego Mediation Center; Sheel K. Mann, $2,500, associate
for California Lawyers for the Arts, member of the Asian-American Law Students
organization; Merrilyn A. Onisko, $2,500, founder and president of the USD chapter
of the National Lawyers Guild, volunteer for the San Diego Volunteer Legal Clinic
and the Public Interest Law Society; and Molly E. Selway, $2,500, extern for
the U.S. Bankrupt-cy Court, volunteer with Amnesty International.
University of San Francisco School of Law
Nicholas Rosenberg, $2,500, legal advocate for the San Francisco
Sheriff's Department, Prisoner Legal Services, board of directors of Glide Econo-mic
Development Corp., volunteer for Lower Eddy Leavenworth Task Force.
USC Law School
Erin Gardiner, $2,500, intern for Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law and the
Alliance for Children's Rights, pro bono co-chair of the law school's Public
Inter-est Law Foundation; Maria Hall, $2,500, law clerk with Communities for
a Better Environment and the USC Post-conviction Justice Clinic, volunteer for
the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice and the Home-less Prevention Clinic;
Leon Hazany, $2,500, law clerk with the Western Center for Disability Rights,
volunteer with the Los Angeles County Barristers Domestic Violence Project and
intern in the civil rights division of the Depart-ment of Justice; Kara L. Oien,
$7,500, intern in the Office of the Federal Public Defender, supervisor of the
Post-conviction Justice Clinic at USC and volunteer with the Neigh-borhood Legal
Center, Homelessness Prevention and Homeless Youth Outreach Clinics; Maura Pally,
$2,500, intern with the California Women's Law Center and the Legal Aid Foun-dation
of Los Angeles, tutor with Interfaith Neighbors.
Whittier Law School
Deborah D. Garrisi, $2,500, fellow of the Center for Children's Rights, member
of the Whittier Public Interest Law Foundation and victim services representative
in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office; Bethany F. Groener, $2,500,
fellow at the Center for Children's Rights, law review, member of the Whittier
Public Interest Law Foundation and extern in the U.S. District Court, the Orange
County Public Defender's Office and the Los Angeles Superior Court; Lorena Larios,
$5,000, extern for the Inner City Law Center and San Pedro Community Legal Services,
and a member of the Whittier Public Interest Law Foundation and the Hispanic
Law Student Association; Maryam Salhi, $5,000, member of the Public Interest
Law Foundation, law clerk for the Legal Aid Founda-tion of Los Angeles, academic
success program teaching assistant and a volunteer with the Afghan Women's Mission,
the International Organiza-tion for the Migration Return of Qualified Afghans
Program, the Emergency Shelter Program and the Afghan Peace Foundation.
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