Class of 2025
Obi Ananaba
Coben Scholar
Raised in Tennessee, Obi (she/her) graduated from Columbia University in 2019 with a degree in Psychology, double concentrating in Education and Race and Ethnicity Studies. At Columbia, Obi was a resident of the Intercultural Resource Center and a board member of Columbia’s Women in Law and Politics. She also worked as a counselor at The Door, a resource center for young people in NYC. After graduating, Obi joined the Legal Aid Society’s Special Litigation and Law Reform Unit in their Juvenile Defense Practice as a paralegal. As a member of the Special Litigation Unit, Obi assisted advocates in bringing class action litigation on behalf of juvenile clients. Obi hopes to use her law degree to continue to empower and advocate for young people of color.
Savannah Baker
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Savannah graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill as an honors laureate with a major in Political Science and Philosophy along with a minor in Social and Economic Justice. Raised in rural eastern North Carolina, Savannah's passion for social justice grew out of her experience advocating for educational equity within her community. While at University Savannah held leadership positions in a number of organizations raising awareness about the injustices facing Black and Brown people within the criminal legal system.
Outside of University, Savannah assisted in the policy efforts of ReprieveUK, working toward the abolition of the death penalty internationally while also holding the government accountable for their complicity in torture and rendition. Savannah has also served as a summer fellow at EmancipateNC, an organization that supports North Carolina’s people as they free themselves from mass incarceration and structural racism.
Savannah currently serves as board chair of EmancipateNC. Savannah is a former Investigative Fellow at the Civil Rights Corps, where the core of her work focused on challenging money bail, fighting debtors’ prisons, and ensuring prosecutorial/police accountability. Savannah's primary interests are in challenging the criminal legal system and turning her passion for justice into power for her community.
Jalen Banks
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar
Jalen Banks is a recent UC Berkeley graduate and Virginia native. She decided to become an attorney after tutoring incarcerated folks at San Quentin State Prison and witnessing the racial and economic inequities in the U.S. carceral system. After graduating from law school, Jalen plans to provide direct legal services for incarcerated folks and people in underserved communities. She also hopes to help foster the next generation of Critical Race theorists and prison abolitionist lawyers.
Jahne Brown
Dr. Milton and Fradie Kramer Scholarship
Jahne grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2020, she graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in History and a minor in human rights. At the University of Chicago, Jahne served as the first woman to be Student Body President in two decades. Outside of school, she held internships at the University Community Service Center, the National Guestworker Alliance, and Orleans Public Defenders. Prior to matriculation at NYU Law, she was a civil rights paralegal for two years at Neufeld, Scheck, & Brustin LLP. In this position, she worked closely with exonerees. In her free time, Jahne is an avid reader and a (middling) runner.
Naomi Chasek-Macfoy
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Naomi Chasek-Macfoy was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Naomi graduated with honors from Brown University in 2018. At Brown, they studied Africana Studies and were involved in prison justice organizing, anti-racist student organizing, and interned with several legal services organizations, including a summer at The Bronx Defenders. After graduating from Brown, Naomi moved to Washington, D.C. to join the firm Cohen, Milsten, Sellers & Toll as a paralegal in their Human Rights practice group. At Cohen Milsten, Naomi worked on human rights cases against U.S.-based multinational corporations and international state actors concerning forced labor, state violence, and abuses related to the extractive industry.
Naomi is deeply committed to building a more just future for all marginalized peoples through collective organizing and struggle. After law school, Naomi intends to use their legal training to continue to support social movements working at the intersections of racial, economic, and gender justice.
Don Chen
Starr Foundation Scholar
Don grew up in Michigan and Illinois and studied International Relations at Pomona College, where he wrote his senior thesis on the politicization of Chinese international students in the United States. In college, he interned at the Housing Rights Center in Los Angeles and China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong.
After graduating from Pomona, Don taught English in Taitung, Taiwan through a Fulbright fellowship and worked at the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, DC. He conducted research and advocacy with nationwide grassroots supporters and coalition partners to lobby Congress to support efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force, prevent war with Iran, and improve civilian casualty reporting. Afterwards, Don worked as a congressional staffer in various capacities, most recently handling military issues.
Maryum Elnasseh
Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Scholar
Maryum is a native of Richmond, Virginia and the daughter of Egyptian immigrants. A firm believer in the power of writing to bring about change, Maryum obtained dual degrees in journalism and political science from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2020. After graduating, she joined the editorial team at In These Times, an independent magazine that provides investigative reporting on corporate and government wrongdoing and is dedicated to advancing movements for social, economic, and racial justice. As a journalist, Maryum has reported about a wide range of issues, including Islam in American jails and prisons, the lack of funding for historic Black cemeteries, environmental justice and pipeline resistance efforts, and the proliferation of illegal Israeli settlements. In her free time, Maryum enjoys reading Arabic poetry, bike riding and skateboarding (despite the painful falls), and drinking strawberry milk. She dreams of a more humane world and hopes her legal education will provide her the tools to effectively bring about large-scale, lasting change.
Jennifer Fu
Jennifer Fu (she/her) was born in Guangzhou, China, and grew up moving around the US South and Midwest. She graduated from Rice University in 2020 with degrees in English and Sociology. Prior to law school, Jennifer spent a year in Taiwan working with an Indonesian migrant labor union as a Fulbright Scholar. Her research centered on how workers used information and communications technology to navigate bureaucracy and build resistance when their physical mobility was heavily monitored and restricted. Jennifer has also spent time working with the Texas Innocence Network, the Public Defender Service for DC, and the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation in Houston. She hopes to learn more about how lawyers can work in tandem with other activists and service providers in establishing safer and more equitable communities. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, oil painting, perusing furniture stores, and warm weather.
Lexi Ivers
Jacobson Public Service Scholar for Women, Children, and Families
Lexi Ivers (she/her) is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up between there and Wilmington, Delaware. She has spent the past four years working on behalf of children and families from low-income backgrounds. Most recently, she served as a Program Associate for the Postsecondary Success for Parents Initiative at Ascend at the Aspen Institute, an organization committed to the economic and social mobility of families through the two-generation approach to poverty. There, she focused on the opportunities and challenges faced by parenting students on their journey toward postsecondary completion. Prior to the Aspen Institute, she served at the New York City Department of Homeless Services, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive homeless system. In her role, she collaborated across city agencies to advance holistic service delivery models for children and families living in New York City shelters.
Lexi graduated from American University in 2018, where she studied legal history and public policy. Collecting art, traveling, spending time with loved ones, and dance bring her joy in her free time.
Fatou Kaba
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
A child of Gambian immigrants, Fatoumata (Fatou) Kaba grew up in East Orange, New Jersey. In May 2022, she graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Justice and Peace Studies. While in college, Fatou sat on the boards of student organizations like Georgetown Women of Color and the Minority Pre-Law association where she worked with other passionate students to create spaces of opportunity and comfort for students of color. Fatou spent her summers working with a variety of non-profit organizations including The Salvation Army, The Women and Family Ascending Association, and The Cooperman College Scholars Program where she provided indirect and direct support to children and families in her community. Fatou has also interned with the New York Office of the Attorney General and worked with the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. Fatou has always been passionate about uplifting the voices of marginalized people and dismantling systems of injustice. She looks forward to using her legal education to further service those in need.
Sam Karnes
Sinsheimer Service Scholar
Sam (he/him) grew up in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017 as a Plan II Honors student with a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic. Upon graduating, he spent a year abroad in Meknes, Morocco where he continued his university Arabic studies through the Arabic Flagship Program. When he returned to Austin, Sam served as an employment case manager at Refugee Services of Texas, a local Austin refugee resettlement agency. As a case manager, he supported refugees and other displaced persons in securing employment and pursuing their long-term professional goals. Afterwards, Sam became a Community Fellow at Immigrant Justice Corps where he represented primarily low-income immigrants living in New York as an Accredited Representative. He conducted legal screenings, provided legal advice, and filed affirmative immigration applications for benefits like citizenship, adjustment of status, Temporary Protected Status, DACA, and more. Sam hopes to use his law degree to provide community-based legal assistance to immigrant groups and to help dismantle the US immigration deportation machine.
Bailey Kendall
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Bailey grew up on her family’s farm in Washington, IN. She received a B.A. in American studies and economics at the University of Notre Dame in 2019. While at Notre Dame, she wrote a senior thesis on border militarization and Catholic pilgrimage practices in El Paso, TX. After graduating, she briefly returned to El Paso to live and work at Annunciation House, a migrant shelter, before serving an AmeriCorps year with the Northwest Justice Project’s farmworker unit in Yakima, WA. There, she gave presentations on immigration and labor rights and performed legal rights outreach at H-2A worker camps. She moved to Chicago, IL, to work on the National Immigrant Justice Center’s Children’s Projection Project. At NIJC, she helped attorneys build immigration cases for young clients, and did Know Your Rights presentations and legal screenings with youth detained in custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Bailey hopes to use her legal training to work towards legal systems that recognize the dignity of laborers and their right to just treatment.
Sang-Min Kim
Born in South Korea, Sang-Min grew up in Los Angeles. He graduated magma cum laude from UC Berkeley in 2020, majoring in political science and with a minor in public health, as a Gates Millennium scholar and Phi Beta Kappa member. During college, he served as a project manager and as a 2020 Human Rights Fellow at UC Berkeley School of Law’s Human Rights Center, where he investigated and verified war crimes and human rights atrocities through open source intelligence. Kim was also a Law Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School’s Public Policy & International Affairs (PPIA) Fellowship program, an intern at the San Francisco’s District Attorney Office, and an open source fellow at the United Nations, where he conducted confidential legal projects surrounding Myanmar. He began his career by working on reunifying Korean divided families, which shaped his journey into one of public service. And right before law school, Kim was selected as a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow at the Arms Control Association, where he worked on the nonproliferation portfolio which mainly involved projects related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. He hopes to use his education and career to empower neglected and marginalized stories, human rights, and accountability in foreign policy.
Coleman Powell
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Coleman is originally from Louisville, Kentucky. In 2020, he graduated from Swarthmore College with Highest Honors and a special major in Comparative Racial & Transnational Politics as well as a minor in Arabic studies. During college, Coleman supported the participatory defense movement and researched the intersections of the Black radical tradition and current movements for abolition. Additionally, he has done policy work exploring the implications of the progressive prosecutor movement, most importantly conceptualizing how to move power outside of the prosecutorial office and promote decarceration. These experiences taught Coleman the power of centering Black political agency in the work that he was doing.
After graduation, Coleman worked for two years as an investigator at Civil Rights Corps (CRC) supporting litigation challenging the criminalization of poverty and advocating for decarceration. He supported pre-trial detention litigation, COVID-19 jail litigation, private probation litigation, prosecutorial diversion program litigation, and the Police Accountability Collaborative project. He has spent significant time developing workshops that frame collective understanding of safety as a defining component of abolitionist theory and practice, most recently co-teaching a course entitled “Designing for Communal Safety” at Stanford’s Design School. He is inspired to use his legal training to continue this work. Coleman is interested in supporting those ensnared in the prison industrial complex, and exploring the ways impact litigation and direct representation can be means of advancing grassroots movements for abolition.
Swetha Saseedhar
WilmerHale Scholar
Swetha Saseedhar graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Biology and French and a minor in Global Health. Prior to law school, Swetha organized with folks from the global south and youth globally to expose the way corporations and US imperialism have caused the climate crisis and to advocate for frontline solutions to the climate crisis.
Swetha hopes to continue to support and learn about revolutionary movements at law school and after. Swetha interned at Reprieve UK 1L summer supporting communities impacted by drone strikes and holding the US accountable for the harm enacted by the US military. During 2L, Swetha was on EPIC (Ending the Prison Industrial Complex) Board in the Immigrant Rights Clinic. 2L summer, Swetha interned at the Community Justice Project.
Nephy Smith
Lindemann Family Public Service Scholar
Nephy Smith (she/her) was born and raised in Jackson, New Jersey. She first came to New York as a John W. Kluge scholar at Columbia University. She graduated with a degree in American Studies and Creative Writing and studied the relationship between mixed media and social movements. After graduating, Nephy spent two years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She served as a Client Advocate at the East Baton Rouge Office of the Public Defender through her fellowship, Partners for Justice. In her role as a Client Advocate, Nephy strove to help people navigate their case processes, reduce the impact and scope of the criminal legal system, and eliminate barriers to resources.
As a law student, Nephy is interested in learning more about public defense, impact litigation, and movement lawyering. She spent her 1L summer in Philadelphia working at Abolitionist Law Center. This year, she will be a part of the Racial Justice and Abolition Clinic as well as serve as one of the Public Interest chairs for BALSA.
Soreti Teshome
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Soreti (she/her) was born in Ethiopia and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. She attended the University of Chicago and studied Public Policy and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies. She was involved in student organizing around campus policing and student efforts to improve institutional support for low-income students of color.
During her time at UChicago, Soreti received a Truman Scholarship and a thesis award for her paper on diversity policy and the experience of black students at UChicago. After graduating, Soreti worked as a paralegal at the Innocence Project where she assisted with active litigation and acted as a point of contact and support for clients. Following her time at Innocence Project, Soreti was a resource coordinator at Manhattan Justice Opportunities, an alternative to incarceration program of the Center for Court Innovation. At NYU, Soreti plans to explore public defense and how lawyers can support grassroots movements for radical systems change and abolition.
Byul Yoon
William and Mary Sterling Scholar
Byul Yoon is a grassroots organizer, movement strategist, and third year law student at NYU Law. Over the last fifteen years, she has trained thousands of activists and launched dozens of campaigns across the country for workers’ rights, racial justice, and divestment from the military industrial complex. At NYU, Byul works with the Constitutional Litigation Clinic and is a staff editor with the NYU Review of Law and Social Change. She previously worked in the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic, and spent her summers with the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Federal Defenders of New York. Byul is committed to using the power of the law to defend grassroots organizers from increasing repression and surveillance. In her free time, Byul loves running, meditating, and studying how revolutions are made.
Emily Zhu
Emily Zhu was born and raised in Kansas. Emily graduated from Harvard College, Class of 2020 with a joint degree in Sociology & Statistics and a minor in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights. Emily wrote a senior thesis on carceral systems’ proximity to environmental toxins and the intersections of health/environmental justice and prison abolition. During college, Emily was heavily involved in campus organizing for Ethnic Studies, directed a free bilingual citizenship tutoring program, and volunteered with the Chinese Progressive Association and Chinatown Community Land Trust. After graduation, Emily worked briefly in biotech and served as a facilitator for the Chinatown Stabilization Committee, where they continued to support grassroots organizing to build worker & tenant power in Boston Chinatown.
During law school, Emily volunteered with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and spent their 1L summer as an intern with the Abolitionist Law Center in Philadelphia. On campus, Emily currently is a co-chair for EPIC (Ending the Prison Industrial Complex), community activism chair for APALSA, and a student in the Critical Race Lawyering for Civil Rights clinic. Emily hopes to explore modes of movement lawyering and leverage their legal education to support grassroots organizing around housing, land, and economic justice.
Class of 2026
Sunzida Ahmed
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar
Sunzida (she/her) was raised in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University with a B.A. in Political Science. Before attending law school, she taught elementary school students, an experience that showed her the value of optimism and kindness—qualities she hopes to carry into her future work as a public defender. At NYU Law, Sunzida has strengthened her commitment to dismantling racial injustice and economic exploitation within the criminal legal system. She prioritizes empathy and respect in her advocacy for marginalized communities, drawing on her experiences with NYU Law’s Parole Advocacy Project and the Federal Defender Clinic. While interning with Communities Resist (CORE) in Brooklyn, she focused on promoting fair housing and preventing displacement in low-income neighborhoods, which, in turn, gave her a deeper appreciation for collective mobilization in the legal sphere. As a Fellow with the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, she continues to refine her understanding of meaningful advocacy through collaborative research and direct service. Outside of her legal work, Sunzida enjoys painting, baking chocolate chip cookies, and doting on her beloved pet cat, Soup.
Larissa Archondo
Lindemann Family Public Service Scholar
Larissa Archondo grew up in Queens, NY and spent summers with family in Brazil and Bolivia. They graduated from Vassar College in 2020 with a degree in Political Science and English, and were involved in music, theater, and campus organizing. During school, Larissa worked as a writing teacher, campaign intern, and community education intern at UnLocal, an immigration legal services provider. After graduation, Larissa joined the Federal Defenders of New York (SDNY), where they led the paralegal team as Chief Paralegal. Over three years, Larissa interviewed clients to draft mitigation submissions, helped family members tell their stories in letters to the judge, and visited clients in federal facilities to advocate for better confinement conditions, prepare them for probation interviews, and provide emotional support through the stress of awaiting trial or sentencing.
At NYU, Larissa is an advocate with the Suspension Representation Project and a student attorney in the Immigrant Rights Clinic. They spent their 1L summer working in appellate level public defense with Appellate Advocates.
Charlotte Biren
Sullivan & Cromwell Scholar
Charlotte Biren (she/her) was born in Santa Monica, California and graduated from Brown University in 2016 with honors in Development Studies and Latin American Studies. Prior to law school, she spent seven years supporting communities of color impacted by fossil fuel extraction, deforestation, and associated human rights abuses. As a daughter of and sister to Ecuadorian immigrants, she has shaped her career around Latine communities here and abroad. She spent time in her family’s ancestral lands of Ecuador to support Kofán communities resisting oil production and mining in their territory and then moved to the Peruvian Amazon to support the frontline efforts of Shipibo-Konibo communities challenging logging on Indigenous land. Domestically, she worked at the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, collecting data on oil and gas concessions in primarily Latine communities. She also worked at Rainforest Action Network (RAN), securing over 12 million dollars in funding for RAN’s global markets and finance campaigns. As a member of the queer community, she volunteered for years as a translator and interpreter for the San Francisco Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights, supporting cases of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers from Latin America.
As a law student, Charlotte is eager to continue supporting communities of color resisting the corporate drivers of climate change and prioritize defending Human Rights Defenders across the globe, who put their lives and bodies on the line amidst increasing threats of violence, defamation, and judicial harassment. She spent her 1L summer at EarthRights International. This year, she is a law student advocate for the Legal Empowerment and Judicial Independence Clinic, as well as a co-public interest & community engagement chair for LALSA and board member for NALSA.
Alberta Born-Weiss
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Alberta (she/hers) was born in Manhattan and raised in the California Bay Area. She got her first taste of lawyering in 8th grade, when she volunteered as a “peer advocate” at the Marin County Youth Court representing first-time misdemeanor offenders in a restorative justice peer court. While earning a degree in Peace and Justice Studies at Wellesley College as a QuestBridge Scholar, Alberta’s time abroad in Argentina and Cuba cemented her commitment to immigrant rights here in the United States. Upon graduating in 2020, she moved to South Texas to work for the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR). There, Alberta served detained unaccompanied immigrant children, providing age- appropriate “Know Your Rights” legal orientations and conducting trauma-informed intakes. Alberta also volunteered on weekends with Team Brownsville, a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian aid (and a warm welcome) to newly-arrived migrants released from DHS custody at the Brownsville bus terminal. Alberta’s work on the border informed her goals to 1. empower newly-arrived immigrants with the knowledge they need to navigate the hostile US immigration system; and 2. fight for universal representation. Alberta hopes to use her NYU Law education to provide removal defense to immigrant youth, both in and out of detention.
Djibril Branche
Coben Scholar
Djibril is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Kenyon College in 2023 with a degree in International Studies and minors in History and Arabic. During his time in college, he worked with his fellow students and alumni to set up a mutual aid fund to cover student needs created by the pandemic, as well as with the Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee (K-SWOC) to build support and momentum for the first wall-to-wall undergraduate student union.
During his junior year, he studied abroad in Jordan volunteering with The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature(APN). There, he worked on creating a database of people/organizations open to partnering with the APN in their campaign of planting three million trees in Palestine. It was through this campaign that he was exposed to the complex legal landscape that governs Palestinian agriculture. This work is what initially sparked his interest in the intersections of environmental and international law.
At NYU Djibril aims to further understand the role the law can play in the broader movement for environmental justice as well as how lawyers can best support community centered mobilizations.
Ernesto Tonatiuh Casillas
Starr Foundation Scholar
Ernesto was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. Living in Bakersfield exposed Ernesto to the plight and struggles of impoverished minority communities living under racist police practices and an overzealous district attorney’s office. This experience inspired him to become an attorney focused on working against systemic racism in the criminal justice system. Ernesto graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley in 2022 with a degree in Philosophy. While at Berkeley, he worked in several organizations dedicated to public interest. In his second year, Ernesto was the fundraising director for Central Valley Scholars, a non profit organization committed to providing scholarships to underprivileged high school students in Central California. In his third and fourth year, he was a research assistant for the Berkeley Center for Comparative Equality, a Berkeley Law organization. In this capacity, he researched global systemic racism and criminal justice, and discussed these issues with law professors from around the world. His most impactful work was after college with a Bakersfield criminal defense firm, Paine Criminal Defense. Ernesto was the Client Services Coordinator, where he was in daily contact with clients both in and out of custody. He developed a genuine connection to these individuals, persecuted members of his Central California community. Following his time at Paine Criminal Defense, Ernesto became a teacher and wrestling coach for North High School developing his roots and love for his community. At NYU, Ernesto hopes to learn the necessary skills and knowledge to become an impactful attorney dedicated to alleviating mass incarceration, unconstitutional police practices, and inhumane prison conditions within Bakersfield and the greater Central Valley of California.
Aarya Chidambaram
Sinsheimer Service Scholar
Aarya Chidambaram grew up in San Diego, California and is the proud daughter of Tamil immigrants. She graduated from UC Davis in 2020 with degrees in International Relations and History. During this time, she became involved with local activist efforts on and off campus and spent time organizing around issues of gender and housing justice. After graduating, she returned home to serve an AmeriCorps term at the Jewish Family Service of San Diego. Around this time, she also began volunteering at a Domestic Violence Crisis Hotline. In 2021, she moved to San Francisco to work at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank as a coordinator in their Home-Delivered Groceries program. With her legal education, Aarya is eager to support grassroots movements dismantling systems of gender and economic oppression.
Ryen Diaz
WilmerHale Scholar
Born in Southern California and raised in rural Nebraska, Ryen graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 2021 with a degree in Social Studies with a focus on migration and human rights. She is passionate about migrant, asylee, and refugee rights and hopes to use her law degree to fight for displaced communities. While in undergrad, Ryen worked with the International Rescue Committee as a Resettlement Officer and the Keep Tucson Together Legal Center on the Cancellation of Removal team. She went on to write her thesis on the “Humanitarian Aid is Not a Crime” Movement and spent a year working with activists along the US-Mexico border to understand the effects of state criminalization on humanitarian aid organizations.
Following graduation, Ryen worked with UNHCR in the Emergency Service Unit doing first-response for onset refugee crises before transitioning to working with the Justice Center for Legal Aid in Amman, Jordan, a local NGO that provides legal support for marginalized and displaced communities. Before starting at NYU Law, Ryen spent the last year on a travelling fellowship in Mexico City, Mexico working as a case manager at Casa Tochan, a migrant and refugee shelter. At NYU, Ryen is also a fellow at the Institute for International Law and Justice and is continuing to pursue interests of the future of borders amidst the climate crisis.
Aitan Groener
Jacobson Public Service Scholar for Women, Children, and Families
Aitan Groener grew up in both Cape Town, South Africa, and St. Louis, Missouri. They obtained their Bachelors degree in Environmental Policy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. While in college, Aitan was involved in training and organizing student activists who opposed Israeli military violence through J-Street U.
For the past five years, Aitan has worked as a casehandling paralegal at Lennox Hill Neighborhood House and Brooklyn Legal Services. In this role, they have been assisting low-income residents of New York City in gaining access to housing, healthcare, and public benefits.
Additionally, Aitan holds a leadership position in the New York City chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which is recognized as the largest organized group of Jewish individuals supporting Palestinian rights worldwide.
Rachel Hu
William and Mary Sterling Scholar
Rachel Hu grew up in Ventura County, California and graduated from Stanford University in 2022 with a B.S. in Atmosphere & Energy Engineering and minor in Computer Science.
During college, Rachel co-led the student committee for Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability where she helped ensure student voices and environmental and racial justice were integrated into its foundations. She also worked at Climate Cabinet helping local candidates for office run, win, and legislate on climate change. Prior to law school, Hu worked as a policy fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she contributed to key climate legislation in Michigan and the implementation of critical provisions of the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
At NYU Law, Rachel hopes to continue supporting communities in advancing climate and environmental justice and exploring legal avenues to achieve a just and equitable future. In her free time, Rachel enjoys running, jamming on the guitar and piano, and going on spontaneous adventures.
Emily Luong
Dr. Milton and Fradie Kramer Scholarship
Emily Luong was born and raised in San Jose, California. As the daughter of a public-school teacher, she has understood the power of strong unions and labor organizing from a young age. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in 2021, with a BA in Communication Studies and minors in History and Labor Studies. In college, she was involved in student organizing with several Southeast Asian student organizations, served as the Internal Vice President of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, and wrote an honors thesis on linguistic appropriation and its impact on cross-racial solidarity in social justice movements. After graduation, she worked as a legal assistant for an immigration law firm and a program coordinator overseeing the LA County indigent criminal defense bar panel.
Emily is interested in using her law degree to support workers’ rights and anti-carceral movements as a movement lawyer. During her 1L summer, she was a Peggy Browning Fellow at the National Employment Law Project (NELP). This year, she is an APALSA Community Activism Co-Chair, a board member for Law Students for Economic Justice, a Staff Editor on the Review for Law & Social Change, and a student in the Civil Rights in the Criminal Legal System clinic.
Mahalia Mathelier
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Mahalia (she/her) grew up in East Meadow, NY. Throughout High school, she volunteered as a defense advocate for teenagers accused of low level offenses, which inspired her interest in using the law as a platform for storytelling. In 2021, Mahalia graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in Government, certificate in Public Policy, and a minor in Economics. Through her coursework, Mahalia explored topics such as racial inequality, the criminal legal system, and mass incarceration. Outside of class she was an Administrative Fellow for the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice, a Byrd Center Intern for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and investigated racial profiling by police as a research assistant.
After college, Mahalia spent two years as a paralegal with the Federal Defenders of New York, SDNY. In this role, she worked closely with clients, supporting them through each stage of their case. She conducted in depth client interviews, drafted deferred prosecution requests and mitigation submissions, and advocated against jail abuses for incarcerated clients. Through this work, she saw first hand the many ways in which the law is inhumane to people of color. Mahalia also provided litigation support in the capital case defense for United States v. Sayfullo Saipov, which was ultimately successful in avoiding a death verdict. After law school, Mahalia hopes to use her legal degree to challenge racial inequities in the criminal legal system.
In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her loved ones, reading contemporary fiction, and soaking up sunshine whenever it’s warm.
Danielle Miles-Langaigne
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Danielle Miles-Langaigne (she/her) was born and raised in Boston, MA to an African-American mom and Trinidadian dad. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a University Civic Scholar from the University of Pennsylvania, where she pursued a degree in Political Science with a concentration in Intersectionality Studies. Her honors thesis, titled “Demands for ‘Sisterly’ Love: Exploring the Hyperpenalization of Black Girls in the School District of Philadelphia,” received distinction within her major, as well as the Philo Bennett Prize within Penn’s Political Science Department and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Scholars Award. Post-graduating from Penn, Danielle dedicated nearly two years to working as a Senior Legal Assistant at Medina Orthwein LLP, a civil rights firm based in the Bay Area that specialized in plaintiff-side employment and prison litigation for BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+ folks. As a law student, she is a Community Equity Initiative Fellow and Research Assistant, a Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network Fellow, a member of the Clerkship Mentoring Program, a member of the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic, and a student advocate through the Suspension Representation Project. She hopes to continue interrogating Black girls’ punitive experiences in public schools, and restorative-justice-based methods that support youth to eventually attain a public school system safe for all students. Outside of school, she loves capturing memories on her film camera, eating foods across both of her ethnic cultures, and streaming Beyoncé’s discography non-stop.
Makena Mugambi
Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Scholar
Makena (she/her) is a Kenyan American who is passionate about reimagining systems that perpetuate injustice in marginalized communities. She graduated from NYU in 2020 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Politics and a minor in Spanish. As an undergraduate student, Makena supported environmental and mental health programming in NYC schools with Leave It Better Foundation, advocated for environmental protections in communities of color with The Black Institute, and helped evaluate interventions to disrupt involvement with the juvenile legal system with NYU’s R.I.S.E. Lab. After graduating, Makena worked at Children’s Rights on both federal class actions as a Paralegal and initiatives addressing racial injustice in the family regulation system as an Advocacy & Policy Fellow. She spent her 1L summer at EarthRights International, researching legal and policy avenues to challenge environmental and human rights violations in communities of color.
At NYU Law, Makena is a student advocate for the Global Justice Clinic and the Parole Advocacy Project, a staff editor for the Review of Law and Social Change, a Research Coordinator for REACH (Research, Education, and Advocacy to Combat Homelessness), and a student fellow at the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. In her free time, Makena enjoys painting, open mic performances, and exploring Brooklyn with her dog.
Ben Perelmuter
Ben Perelmuter is a second-year law student dedicated to legal work in support of the labor movement and movements for decarceration. At NYU he is a member of the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic, co-president of the Taxi Worker Defense Collective, and a board member of Law Students for Economic Justice and the Law and Political Economy Association. He spent his 1L summer in the NLRB’s Contempt, Compliance, and Special Litigation Branch. He will spend his 2L summer at the labor law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser.
Prior to law school, Ben worked at Civil Rights Corps, where he investigated and developed class action lawsuits and advocacy campaigns challenging wealth-based detention and jail profiteering in the US south and midwest. Before Civil Rights Corps, Ben managed the Center for Appellate Litigation’s Conditions of Confinement Project, which advocated for the medical, safety, and quality of life needs of hundreds of incarcerated New Yorkers. In college, Ben interned at the Bronx Defenders, the New York Review of Books, and the MAP Foundation, a Thai migrant labor rights organization. He also wrote a senior thesis that studied Cold War-era legal discourse on discretion in the criminal legal system.
Outside of work, Ben is involved in Jewish organizing for racial and economic justice and has been involved in campaigns to shrink police budgets and increase funding for non-carceral social services in both Washington D.C. and New York. In his free time, he enjoys biking and hiking, making fresh pasta, and taking advantage of New York’s independent book stores and movie theaters. He is originally from Needham, Massachusetts and graduated from Princeton University in 2019.
Sarika Ram
Sarika (she/her) is from outside of Philadelphia, PA and graduated from Boston University with a BA in Sociology in 2021. Sarika’s work focuses on dismantling carceral technologies within the broader effort to abolish the prison industrial complex. Prior to law school, Sarika worked at the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab and Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts. Outside of her work, Sarika loves dancing, scrapbooking, and building Lego!
Eleni Reynolds
Eleni was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2019, she graduated from Columbia University as a C.P. Davis Scholar with a BS in Environmental Engineering. She briefly worked as an environmental impact consultant before shifting her career to center on racial justice and access to affordable housing. For the two years prior to law school, Eleni worked as a paralegal in Legal Aid DC’s Consumer Law Unit. Her work at Legal Aid focused on foreclosure prevention, debt collection defense, and criminal record sealing.
Outside of work, Eleni also volunteered as a tenant organizer with MetroDSA’s anti- eviction project. Through this project, Eleni worked alongside tenants to hold tenant meetings, organize protests, and engage local politicians in the fight for safe living conditions.
At NYU, Eleni hopes to remain involved in housing and climate justice work. She is interested in finding spaces in which lawyers can provide meaningful support to movements for racial and economic justice. In her free time, Eleni enjoys reading and roller skating.
Brianna Sturkey
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Brianna graduated cum laude from Barnard College in 2020 with a dual degree in sociology and human rights. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a litigation paralegal at the New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation. There, she provided support to the legal director and senior staff attorneys for a wide-ranging docket of civil rights cases. Brianna is a fierce housing rights advocate. She previously served as a collaborator for the Undesigning the Redline Exhibit – an exhibition which seeks to explore the sociopolitical effects of redlining and racialized housing segregation. In her role as a collaborator, Brianna co-facilitated reading groups that explored the history of Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem through slum clearance and urban renewal funding, as well as tenant and student efforts to resist gentrification. She also hosted a community panel with long-term Harlem residents, lawyers, and founders of local non-profits to discuss the impact of the affordable housing crisis on minority communities.
Brianna continues to pursue her passion for social justice by working alongside community and tenants’ rights activists to address housing inequality in New York City. Brianna plans to use her law degree to fight against residential displacement and push for laws that recognize housing as a human right.
Sunil Tohan
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Sunil (they/them) grew up in Maryland and attended Brown University studying English and Public Health. At Brown, they wrote an honors thesis exploring queer of color diaspora and aesthetics. Sunil also worked as a case manager, outreach worker, and facilitator for Honoring Youth Power and Experience, a nonprofit providing resources for young queer Rhode Islanders experiencing housing insecurity. They later contributed to class action litigation related to environmental health issues impacting communities of color by working for a public health expert witness. Sunil most recently worked as a paralegal in New York, supporting corporate litigation as well as pro bono projects partnered with the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.
At NYU, Sunil is an advocate in the Reproductive Justice Clinic, a student fellow at the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, an advocate for NYU Parole Advocacy, and the Chair of the Identity Documents Project. During their 1L summer, they worked at Lambda Legal on cases involving sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV discrimination in schools and prisons. They are interested in studying the intersection of law and queer performance and how lawyers can facilitate liberation for trans people of color.
Gracie Western
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Gracie graduated in 2021 from Harvard College with a degree in Sociology. While at school, Gracie interned with Sanctuary for Families in their Courtroom Advocates Project, assisting petitioners in filing pro se for Orders of Protection in family court. After graduating, Gracie served as an AmeriCorps member at the Office of the Appellate Defender (OAD) in Manhattan, working on parole advocacy and with people post-conviction at the intersection of the criminal
legal system and immigration enforcement. Since her year of service, Gracie has continued at OAD as a paralegal, primarily working with clients as they sought modified sentences under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. Gracie has a deep interest in how the criminal legal system responds to gender-based and family violence, and in the potential for restorative justice as an alternative framework for responding to harm. Although most of Gracie’s experience is in direct-service work she also hopes to explore legal advocacy through policy change at NYU. In the year before law school, Gracie became a Certified Perinatal Educator through a doula-training program with the Ladies of Hope Ministries and Commonsense Childbirth. In the course, which was designed specifically for system-impacted individuals and advocates, Gracie learned to support the unique needs of incarcerated people before, during, and after labor. In her free time, Gracie enjoys practicing yoga and performing in the occasional improvisational comedy show.
Class of 2027
Jude al-Ghazal Stone
Having spent most of his life in Arizona and Oregon, Jude is excited to return to the East Coast for law school. Jude first became passionate about equal rights advocacy when he experienced and challenged his high school’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies. While attending the University of Oregon as an undergraduate, he gained experience with many different advocacy roles, from legal investigation and policy development to community support and nonprofit administration. However, he was most involved in grassroots organizing as a campaign manager and Vice Chair of Oregon Students Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG). Jude became the full-time staff organizer of OSPIRG’s flagship campus after he graduated, training over 500 interns and volunteers to win statewide grassroots campaigns for food and housing security, renewable energy, Indigenous water rights, and more. During his time with OSPIRG, he ran successful campaigns to double the organization’s annual income and to help 20,000 students vote in the 2020 election. After, he worked at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon, where he managed the organization’s Portland policy work, led various community engagement projects, served as a copyeditor for public communications across all departments, and analyzed hundreds of statewide legislative proposals. His policy advocacy focused on establishing transparent democracy and accountability for police surveillance technology.
Ivy Bernstein
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Ivy Bernstein received their B.A. in History with a focus in law and society at Brown University in 2021. Ivy worked for three years as a Civil Legal Advocate at The Bronx Defenders, where they collaborated with attorneys across practices to provide holistic defense services to people impacted by incarceration. Specifically, Ivy represented clients in administrative hearings against HRA and DHS to obtain public benefits and shelter, advocated for clients in shelter discharge emergencies, filed Notice of Claims with clients in areas of ACS and NYPD misconduct, and assisted clients in property retrieval and obtaining vehicles seized in arrest through NYPD negotiations. Ivy also served as their department’s non-attorney Union representative. At NYU Law, Ivy hopes to use their legal education to combat the family regulation system and hold ACS accountable.
Thalia Charles
Jacobson Public Service Scholar for Women, Children, and Families
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Pennsylvania, Thalia Charles (she/her) is the daughter of Grenadian immigrants. Thalia graduated summa cum laude from Lafayette College with degrees in Government & Law and Psychology in 2022. In college, Thalia founded and was president of a reproductive and sexual health club, spearheaded a menstrual equity project as Student Body Vice President, and interned with the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. Thalia was also involved in anti-gender violence student organizing through Know Your IX.
After graduation, Thalia worked as a family defense paralegal at Brooklyn Defenders, defending parents accused of child neglect and abuse. Thalia also freelanced as a reproductive justice writer covering an array of topics including threats to contraceptive access, the intersection of family policing and abortion rights, and birth justice.
Thalia hopes to use her law degree to expand access to reproductive healthcare and protect people’s reproductive rights from state intervention and control. In her free time, Thalia enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, exploring cafes in Brooklyn, and cuddling with her cat, Pauli.
Huailing Chen
Sinsheimer Service Scholar
Huailing Chen grew up in Texas and graduated from the Dual B.A. Program between Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University with B.A.s in English Studies and English Literature and a concentration in Computer Science.
While in Dublin, Huailing learned from Irish anti-colonial history and built international solidarity campaigning against direct provision for asylum-seekers. In New York City, Huailing was a Seeding Change Fellow for grassroots Asian-American organizing, joined tenants organizing against gentrification in the Chinatown Tenants Union, and helped neighbors establish a tenants’ association at The Goddard Riverside Law Project in Harlem.
After graduating, Huailing continued assisting tenants in Manhattan fight eviction and displacement as a paralegal at The Legal Aid Society. Huailing hopes to use their skills to build liberatory structures with community, support grassroots movements, and restore symbiotic stewardship with the land.
Jo Cohen
Starr Foundation Scholar
Jo was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University with a BA cum laude in Physics, as well as a concentration in History. She spent three years working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using data science techniques to address racial bias in machine learning/AI underwriting algorithms and strengthen lawsuits against predatory financial services and products. Previously, she worked in political campaigns as an organizer and policy director and interned at the New York Legal Assistance Group in the SDNY federal pro se clinic. During and after law school she hopes to work at the intersection of technology law/policy and racial and economic justice. Outside of school, she loves reading, painting, ceramics, swimming, and hiking.
Nastaran Far
Andrew W. Mellon Scholar
Nastaran Far (she/they) was born in Kashan, Iran and raised in Irvine, California. Nastaran graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Law, History, and Culture. On campus, they conducted in-depth research on truth commissions and transitional justice. Off campus, they worked as an immigration casework intern at a congressional office and as an intern at the ACLU’s National Security Project. Post grad, Nastaran worked as a Policy and Advocacy Fellow at Win Without War and as a Policy Assistant at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) where they were an active organizer in IRAP’s union. Nastaran is committed to immigrant justice and civil liberties work and is particularly concerned by the weaponization of national security narratives against minoritized communities. She is interested in varied areas that intersect here - from racial justice to anti-militarism to climate justice to reproductive justice to queer rights to worker rights. She hopes that her legal degree will be useful in working alongside and within communities to combat the harm inherent to our current legal and policy systems. On her off time, she reads a lot of poetry.
Sherell Farmer
Lindemann Family Public Service Scholar
Sherell was born and raised in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In 2022, she graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations, with minors in Law & Society, History, and Inequality Studies. While at Cornell, Sherell was heavily engaged in organizing for Black students and communities through Cornell Students 4 Black Lives & Do Better Cornell. Outside of school, she explored the power of direct legal services work through internships with Cornell Law School, the Legal Assistance of Western New York, and the Cornell Defenders Program. Following graduation, Sherell worked as a paralegal & pre-law DEI scholar at a law firm in D.C. where she worked extensively on immigration, housing, and criminal legal pro bono matters.
Following law school, Sherell hopes to pursue a career in public defense and impact litigation to bolster a more equitable future for Black and Brown communities.
Michelle Howard
Michelle (she/her) is from Tucson, AZ, and graduated from Stanford University in 2020 with a degree in bioengineering and a minor in religious studies. Since then, she has worked for a telehealth startup providing free health monitoring services to elderly folks with chronic conditions across California, lived in Mexico City as a Fulbright Scholar, and worked as an Operations Manager for an innovative legal aid nonprofit in San Francisco called Open Door Legal.
Michelle is committed to stopping the exploitation of local communities and natural resources by private companies. A proud Mexican citizen, she hopes to use her law degree to strengthen corporate accountability across Latin America. Michelle’s interests include reggaeton dance, Harry Potter, the outdoors, making and consuming desserts, and spending time with her friends, partner and family.
Kelis Johnson
Coben Scholar
Kelis was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy. In college, she researched the intersections between behavioral science and criminal justice in eyewitness reliability, jury instructions, and police procedure. She was a researcher in a memory and learning lab and served on Duke's Honor Council facilitating discussion around honor and integrity across campus. Kelis interned at the Dekalb County Clerk of Superior Court supporting the civil archives and notary department. Post-graduating from Duke, Kelis spent two years working as a Paralegal at Relman Colfax PLLC, a civil rights firm based in Washington, D.C. specializing in civil rights litigation and counseling in housing, lending, education, and police accountability. In her free time, Kelis enjoys reading, discovering and listening to podcasts, and spending time with friends and family.
Cat La Roche
Dr. Milton and Fradie Kramer Scholarship
Cat was born and raised near Asbury Park, New Jersey. In 2021, she graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College with a degree in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. While in school, she worked at Middlebury’s Feminist Resource Center, researched for Dr. Carly Thomsen’s forthcoming book Queering Reproductive Justice, and interned at The Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn Trial Office. After college, Cat worked as the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) paralegal at The Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau, on behalf of indigent New Yorkers convicted of sex crimes. In this role, Cat corresponded with and visited incarcerated clients, gathered mitigation material for their hearings, and drafted level-modification petitions. She also wrote bimonthly digests summarizing directives handed down by New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for the entirety of the Criminal Appeals Bureau. In her final year before law school, Cat worked as the Criminal Appeals Bureau’s supervising paralegal, helping to oversee a staff of around 25 paralegals.
Cat volunteers with the Parole Preparation Project, working with a partner to help an incarcerated New Yorker secure parole. At NYU, and beyond, Cat hopes to continue working on behalf of indigent people accused and convicted of crimes
Gabriella Limón
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Gabriella grew up in Carpinteria, California. She graduated in 2020 from Yale University with a B.A. in Political Science. At Yale, she studied the tactics of social movements in the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and founded the Acorn, the university’s first student-run café. As a student, she worked in two local restaurants, interned at the California State Senate and Momofuku Restaurant Group, and conducted independent research on local resistance to tech company headquarters in New York and Berlin.
After graduation, Gabriella worked at the Brennan Center for Justice, where she assisted with research and advocacy around the 2020 redistricting cycle and served as a member of its inaugural union bargaining committee. After Brennan, Gabriella joined Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where she supported litigation advancing the right to an abortion under state constitutions in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Most recently, Gabriella was a Deputy Legislative Director in the New York State Senate, where she wrote legislation to defend workers from surveillance and artificial intelligence in the workplace and coordinated a campaign to direct more funding to legal representation for people in Family Court. Her writing has appeared in Ms. and Univisión.
At NYU, Gabriella hopes to use the law to assist and advance movements for racial, gender, and economic justice in state courts and legislatures.
Vienna O'brien
WilmerHale Scholar
Vienna was raised outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2024, she graduated with honors from Cornell University majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations and minoring in Inequality Studies and Crime, Prisons, Education, and Justice. Vienna has long dedicated herself to the rights of incarcerated individuals, aiming to work toward a more just system. While at Cornell, Vienna served as President of the Cornell University Parole Initiative (CUPI), an organization dedicated to helping incarcerated individuals prepare for their upcoming parole hearings. She also drafted and advocated for a bill to require adequate pre- and postnatal care for pregnant people in New York State prisons. Vienna hopes to continue this line of work post-graduation and fight for more humane prison conditions.
Virginia Ryan
William and Mary Sterling Scholar
Virginia grew up in Concord, MA and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in 2022 with a degree in Law, Jurisprudence, & Social Thought and Environmental Studies. At Amherst, Virginia was captain of the softball and mock trial teams, led a club centered around volunteering, and supported a campaign to raise money to bail out an indigenous environmental defender in the Philippines. She also worked to increase the youth vote in 2020 and interned with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in 2021. After graduating, Virginia worked in Boston as a paralegal for Conservation Law Foundation’s Strategic Litigation team and supported litigation against Big Oil companies under a novel climate change theory. She was also a consistent volunteer at a local soup kitchen, Haley House, and was recently awarded the Myra Kraft Community MVP Award for her service. Virginia intends to use her legal education to combat climate injustice and mass incarceration.
Priya Sethi
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Priya Sethi (she/her) grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California in 2022, majoring in Law, History, and Culture with a minor in Psychology and Law. While at USC, Priya worked with the Orleans Public Defenders as an investigative intern. She also worked with the Jails Project of the ACLU of Southern California, the court-ordered monitor of conditions of confinement in Los Angeles County jails. There, she operated hotlines for incarcerated people and their loved ones, filing grievances to facilitate access to food, healthcare, and humane living conditions. She also drafted and lobbied for changes to the Title 15 Minimum Standards for Local Detention Facilities. After graduating, Priya was a Litigation Paralegal with the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the Legal Aid Society in New York, working closely with incarcerated clients and their attorneys to support various post-conviction proceedings. While at Legal Aid, Priya visited clients at prisons throughout the state, helped people prepare for their parole hearings, and worked to overturn several decades-old prosecutions in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Priya intends to use her law degree to work with and on behalf of those exploited by the criminal legal system.
Anjali Singapur
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Anjali grew up in Bangalore, India and graduated from Swarthmore College in 2021 with a degree in Sociology & Anthropology and Political Science. During her time in college, she interned at several nonprofits advocating for economic and gender justice, including The Legal Aid Society, where she worked on resentencing motions for incarcerated survivors under the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. After graduating, she joined the litigation team at Planned Parenthood Federation of America as a paralegal, defending abortion access in state and federal courts across the country leading up to and in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Following her time at Planned Parenthood, Anjali worked as a Research Analyst tracking right-wing attacks on K-12 education equity across the country. Anjali hopes to use her law degree in service of an expansive vision of reproductive justice. Outside of school, she enjoys watching reality television and making misshapen ceramics.
Matty Templeton
Matty (he/him) grew up in Chappaqua, New York, and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2022 with a degree in Communication Studies and minors in Jazz Guitar Performance and Computer Science. While at Vanderbilt, Matty volunteered with Workers’ Dignity, an immigrant worker center in Nashville, where he assisted workers experiencing wage theft and filing for workers’ compensation and designed a language justice curriculum for new volunteers and interpreters. After graduation, Matty joined the Eviction Right to Counsel program at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. In his role as a Legal Navigator, Matty led the program’s community outreach and education campaign and assisted tenants in appealing rental assistance denials and preparing pro se lawsuits against their landlords. At NYU, Matty hopes to learn about the intersection of labor, housing, and immigration, as well as how lawyers can engage in movement lawyering and organizing efforts. In his free time, Matty enjoys reading, cooking, and practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Marina Tian
Sullivan & Cromwell Scholar
Originally from Chandler, Arizona, Marina comes to NYU after two years at the Community Service Society of New York. During that time, she helped New Yorkers access life-saving medical care and clear hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical debt by representing clients in insurance appeals, regulatory complaints, hospital billing disputes, and public benefits hearings. Previously, Marina worked in health policy in D.C., with a focus on Medicaid policy and health coverage and access for low-income people. In her work, Marina has seen firsthand how our health is shaped by the social and political conditions around us. At NYU, she hopes to sharpen her advocacy skills and continue fighting for health justice, recognizing that protecting the wellbeing of vulnerable people means challenging structural inequities of all kinds.
Marina received a B.S. in Health Policy from Georgetown University in 2019. While at Georgetown, she conducted research on pandemic preparedness policy, infectious disease history, and the relationships between colonization and global health. She also holds an M.P.H. in Sociomedical Sciences with a certificate in History, Law, and Ethics from Columbia University, where she was a recipient of the Huo Public Service Scholarship.
Ximena Valdarrago
Doris C. and Alan J. Freedman Scholar
Ximena Valdarrago (she/her) was born in Lima, Peru, and grew up in Los Angeles. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2020 with degrees in English and Political Science. At Berkeley, she was involved in organizing for resources for immigrant and undocumented students throughout the University of California system. She also interned with several legal services organizations, including the ACLU of Northern California and Pangea Legal Services. Ximena returned to Pangea as a co-director and paralegal after graduation. Over four years, she worked with both detained and non-detained immigrants in removal proceedings. She connected clients with community empowerment and policy advocacy opportunities that furthered the goals of the larger immigrant rights movement. She also served on Pangea’s Finance and Operations Hubs as part of the organization’s non-hierarchical, democratically run structure. Ximena hopes to use her legal education to continue advocating for a future where immigrants’ rights are not defined by documentation. She is especially excited to explore how the law and community organizing can join to work toward collective liberation, and how community non-profit organizations can transition toward more equitable and sustainable work practices.
Mina Yakubu
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship in Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and/or Criminal Justice
Mina (she/her) is a proud Ghanaian-American immigrant who primarily grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her interests lie in international law and human rights advocacy, particularly concerning African and African Diasporic communities. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021 with Highest Distinction and majors in Political Science and African, African American, and Diaspora Studies (AAAD) along with a minor in Social and Economic Justice. Mina is a Jack Kent Cooke, Truman, and Morehead-Cain Scholar. While at UNC, she worked at the Legal Aid Scheme Ghana, the Tahirih Justice Center, and Innocence Project London. She is an Associate Editor for Linkages, the AAAD Department newsletter. Prior to NYU Law, Mina served as the Legal and Governance Coordinator at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. In her free time, Mina enjoys reading (especially books by African authors), listening to music, and exploring the outdoors!
Bilen Zerie
Filomen M. D'Agostino Scholarship for Women and Children's Rights
Born in Rwanda and raised in Appalachia by Eritrean immigrants, Bilen Zerie (she/her) attended William & Mary, studying International Relations. While in college, Bilen worked as a Research Fellow for the International Justice Lab, where she examined transitional justice movements in post-violence contexts and advocated for similar processes in the United States. After graduating in 2022, Bilen worked in DC as a Program Associate with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. There, she supported projects on hate, extremism, and disinformation, with a focus on online harms targeting various identity groups. Bilen is passionate about victim-centered justice and dismantling oppressive systems, and through her legal career, hopes to join movements combating transnational attacks on human and civil rights. In her free time, she enjoys tennis, trips to the movie theater, singing in choirs, and taking long walks through new neighborhoods.