Diversity and the Bar - May/June 2016

All recipients said the scholarship allows them to pursue their passion for the law and make vital connections in their respective fields without facing enormous debt after they graduate.

“Law school is a very serious investment, and many people get discouraged from ever pursuing their dreams because of the astronomical debt and tuition that comes with it,” said Leah Wong, one of this year’s recipients. “For me, this scholarship not only allows me to attend law school but be more bold and creative in deciding what that career will look like. Rather than only pursue positions for strictly monetary reasons, I can consider other aspects that are really important in a legal career, too.”

Public Service on Path to Law School

Public service through a global lens, as well as a diverse range of experiences that pointed them toward their future legal careers, is a hallmark of many recipients in this year’s scholarship class. Brittany Porter and Destiny Dike taught in urban high schools in Texas through Teach for America, while Wong spent a year with AmeriCorp in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office before being admitted to University of Pennsylvania Law School.

“They have spent their entire lives working on
access to justice for marginalized groups of people,”
Wong said of her AmeriCorp experience. “Not by any
conscious means, all my mentors have been people of
color who have surpassed their bounds and trailblazed
in their careers. It’s insane how much I learned from
Porter moved from Fort Worth to Texas after
receiving her bachelor’s degree and taught algebra
I for two years at the
lowest-performing high
school in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area. Both years,
her students passed the
state tests, exceeding the
district average.

“The best moment in
my life was being able
to tell my students, who
had been conditioned
from years of failing their
state standardized exams,
that they passed,” Porter
said. “Watching the sense of joy, elation and relief pass
across their faces all at once was all the validation I
needed for my work.”
While at the University of Miami, where she ma-
jored in international relations and Latin American
studies, Savabi studied abroad in Peru and Guatema-
la for a semester each, working at an orphanage for
former trafficked child sex workers and as a research
assistant on a huge immigration project in Central
America. Those experiences, she said, strengthened her
resolve to help others in need and served as a reminder
of what her parents had overcome.

“Living thousands of miles from any family, my parents were left to rely exclusively on each other for support, which was difficult for them both emotionally and financially,” she said. “Despite their struggles, they remained positive and instilled a strong work ethic and resiliency in their children. They sacrificed and struggled so that I could pursue the career of my choosing. I do not take that lightly.”