Salary discrepancies between corporate and public interest jobs often deter law students from entering the field of public interest law. Justice John Paul Steven’s Fellowship, offered through the School of Law, strives to bridge the financial gap between the two areas of law by allowing students the opportunity to follow their passions. Each year two students are granted $5000 to pursue summer work in public interest and social justice law.
In honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the Stevens Fellowship is awarded to students who demonstrate a strong commitment to public interest. Skip Paul, who created the fellowship, graduated from the Santa Clara University School of Law in 1975. Paul served as a law clerk to Justice Stevens, first at the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Previous students have spent their summers working for a wide array of non-profit organizations, such as Children’s Defense Fund, California Rural Legal Assistance, Fresh Lifelines for Youth, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and National Organization for Women.
Summer jobs afford law students the opportunity to receive valuable experience in their field of legal interest, while enabling them to make the contacts necessary to further their careers. Last year’s Stevens’ fellows were Stephanie Grogan and Kimberly Pederson, both 3Ls.
Grogan spent her summer interning for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. The Center represents people facing the death penalty at trial, on appeal, and in post-conviction proceedings. Its goal is to ensure competent representation for all those accused of crimes and those facing the death penalty. The Center also works to ensure prisoners’ rights and seeks to reverse the trend to criminalize children by charging them in adult courts and by treating minor acts of misbehavior as acts of delinquency in the juvenile courts.
When Grogan learned she was a recipient of the Stevens Fellowship, she felt a great sense of relief. “It really was like a godsend – enabling me to work without having to worry about money and allowing me to concentrate on doing what I wanted to do at the Center.”
The other 2003 fellow, Pederson, interned for the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, a non-profit organization based in New Delhi, India. The Centre’s work focused on developing a sample curriculum for International Criminal Law. This project was part of a larger scheme to develop a complete International Human Rights curriculum for use by Indian university professors as a road map in human rights courses.
Like Grogan, Pederson too had concerns about paying off law school loans and finding a job that she would be excited to go to every morning. “It really is more important to find a job that I truly enjoy doing, rather than to find one that will allow me to quickly pay off my debt.”
Application forms for the Stevens Fellowships may be obtained from the Center for Social Justice and Public Service, located at the Law Clinic, or through Faculty Support Office and are due by Feb. 27, 2004.
Article provided by The Advocate
Written by Yvette Garfield
