Maribel Hernández '10 has received a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Born in Mexico 28 years ago, Hernández and her family came to Texas when she was 13 years old.
The Soros Fellowships were established in 1997 to provide grants and tuition assistance for graduate study of immigrants and children of immigrants to achieve leadership in their chosen fields. The program was established in recognition of the contributions new Americans have made to life in the United States. Thirty-one fellows were selected this year from 750 applicants nationwide. Soros Fellows have gone on to write books, compose music for orchestras, develop patents, and 10 have clerked for Supreme Court justices.
Hernández graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she held a Mellon Mays undergraduate fellowship and a Goldman Sachs scholarship for excellence. At Harvard, she was active in addressing issues of importance to Latino/a students, serving as president of the local chapter of RAZA and Concilio Latino. After graduation she taught in Marseilles, France, and later interned with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Mozambique and the Clinton Foundation.
A Bickel & Brewer Scholar, Hernández is currently pursuing a joint J.D./M.P.A. at NYU Law and Princeton University. She is an articles editor of the NYU Law Review and a member of the Immigrant Rights Clinic. She plans to work in immigration law and advocacy.