Public Service Program Award Luncheon
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
U N C H E O N P R O G R A M
OPENING AND INTRODUCTION
Michelle Takagishi-Almeida, Director, Public Service Program
SOUTHWESTERN WELCOME
Julie Waterstone
Vice Dean and Clinical Professor of Law
GEORGE AND KATRINA WOOLVERTON PUBLIC SERVICE
AWARD PRESENTATION
Andrea Ramos
Director of Clinical Programs and Immigration Law Clinic
WOOLVERTON FAMILY PUBLIC-INTEREST
AWARD PRESENTATION
Andrea Ramos
Director of Clinical Programs and Immigration Law Clinic
SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW SERVICE
AWARD PRESENTATION
Julia Vazquez
Director of the Community Lawyering Clinic and PublicInterest Concentration
Oscar Teran
Associate Dean for Career Services
STUDENT ORGANIZATION VOLUNTEER
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD PRESENTATION
Bryon Alvarez
Chair, Public-Interest Law Committee
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Public-Interest Law Faculty Committee
Through Southwestern’s Public Service Program Award Luncheon, the PublicInterest Law Faculty Committee honors those students from each year's graduating class with a demonstrated dedication to public interest law activities or career practice.
The Public Service Program (PSP) Award Luncheon also aims to cultivate in the wider Southwestern student body a commitment to pro bono and public service through the recognition of students who fulfill their PSP Pledge of completing a minimum of 75-hours of service by graduation.
Public-Interest Law Committee
Southwestern’s Public-Interest Law Committee’s mission is to help create a community where Southwestern students are educated and incentivized to participate in issues concerning and advancing the public interest. Each year, the student-led Public-Interest Law Committee focuses efforts in raising the financial support necessary for those students who wish to spend a summer contributing to the work of Public-Interest and government agencies providing legal services and representation for underserved communities across California.
Congratulations to our 2023 Graduating Student Award Recipients!
George & Katrina Woolverton
Made possible through the generosity of Southwestern alumni
George Woolverton ‘75 and Katrina Woolverton '02.
Established in 2010, the George and Katrina Woolverton Public Service Award is given to one graduating student in recognition of demonstrated and extraordinary dedication to Public-Interest law activities while at Southwestern.
Established in 2017, The Woolverton Family Public-Interest Award honors one graduating student in recognition of exceptional dedication to public interest law activities while at Southwestern
Angelica Gonzalez
GEORGE AND
PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT
Angelica Gonzalez is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first-generation student enrolled in Southwestern’s SCALE program. While at Southwestern, Angelica has been honored to serve as a Teaching Assistant for Professor Judy Sloan, Professor Jennifer Rodriguez-Fee, Professor Ronald Aronovksy, a Dean’s Fellow, Peer Mentor, and a proud 2022 Judge Harry Pregerson Public Service Fellow. In addition to board positions with Southwestern’s Latino Law Students Association (LLSA) and the Mass Incarceration Awareness Law Society (MIALS), Angelica has clerked for the American Civil Liberties Union – Southern California, Root & Rebound, Southwestern’s Ninth Circuit Appellate Litigation Clinic and volunteered with the Los Angeles County Small Claims Collaborative, MIALS Mail Night Project, and the LLSA Hoover Toy Drive Angelica hold a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the California State University, Long Beach, where she first began to see how communities can be systemically excluded from equal opportunities. Following bar pass, she plans to work in criminal law defending indigent clients’ rights while continuing the work in dismantling stereotypes surrounding system-impacted individuals.
KATRINA WOOLVERTON
Jesse Arianna Gonzales
WOOLVERTON FAMILY PUBLIC-INTEREST AWARD RECIPIENT
d raised in the Philippines, moving to the United States at the age of nine. Due to her background, she developed a passion for immigration law, and pursued a legal education to assist and serve as an advocate for the immigrant community. She was heavily involved in the Immigration Law Clinic during her law school career. Outside of school, she works at WR Immigration, a private firm specializing in business and global visa services.
Southwestern Public-Interest Law Service Award
Honoring selected graduating students in recognition of an individual's demonstrated and significant dedication to public interest law activities while at Southwestern.
Jenna Karvunidis
SOUTHWESTERN
PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT
of the Environmental Law Society, Co-President of Women s Law Association, a Dean s Merit Scholar, and one of a select number of students whose article, A Path Back to Lawful Abortion: Transgender Men and the Immutable Characteristic of a Suspect Class, was chosen for publication in Volume 53 of the Southwestern Law Review. Jenna has also been a dedicated student in the pursuit of housing justice for low-income communities clerking for public interest organizations, such as the Eviction Defense Network, Bet Tzedek’s Eviction Defense Project as well as Southwestern’s Eviction Defense Clinic Jenna continues on from Southwestern as a post-bar fellow with Inner City Law Center. She and her husband Niko have three daughters
Herbert Martinez
AWARD RECIPIENT
Herbert is a student in Southwestern’s accelerated two-year SCALE program who has been actively engaged on and off-campus serving as a Teaching Assistant to faculty members, a student advocate in Southwestern’s Community Lawyering Clinic and law clerk for public interest organizations, such as the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Housing Rights Center, and Inner City Law Center. Born and raised in Los Angeles to immigrant parents, Herbert is a first-generation student who came to law school in pursuit of a career serving the diverse and often underrepresented communities he grew up in He wanted the knowledge and skills to help empower these communities and to make lasting changes. He is so grateful to Southwestern for giving him the skill and expertise to help serve the communities he loves and, following bar exam, returns to Inner City Law Center as a Housing Justice Fellow.
SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW SERVICE
Vivian Meza
SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT
Vivian is a first-generation Mexican-American from the Inland Empire. While earning her B.A. in Journalism from Arizona State University, Vivian worked as a digital reporter covering politics, tribal lands, and marginalized communities. While at Southwestern, Vivian has participated in Southwestern’s Street Law and Immigration Clinics, competed for the Latino Law Students Association Moot Court Team; clerked with the Central American Resource Center’s Deportation Defense Unit in San Bernardino and with the Riverside County Public Defender’s Office. She holds leadership positions as a 2022 Judge Harry Pregerson Public Service Fellow and with Southwestern’s Latino Law Students Association, Immigration Law Student Association, and the National Lawyers Guild – SW Chapter She aims to use her experience in both criminal and immigration law to provide high-quality representation for non-citizens facing criminal charges or post-conviction immigration relief Following bar exam, Vivian returns to the Riverside County Public Defender’s Office as a post-bar clerk.
Tina Petrosian
As a passionate advocate for workers’ rights, Tina’s long-term focus is on fighting for a world that is safer, more equitable, and with better living conditions for all people –rather than only the few who have privilege and resources. While at Southwestern, Tina served as a Judge Harry Pregerson Public Service Fellow, Co-President of the Labor & Employment Law Association, Treasurer of the Homelessness Prevention Law Project, Student Advocate with the Community Lawyering Clinic and clerked with the National Labor Relations Board - Los Angeles. Outside of Southwestern, Tina is a volunteer Legal Observer for the National Lawyers Guild – Los Angeles, a Certified Law Clerk with Stop LAPD Spying, active volunteer with Bet Tzedek’s weekly Workers’ Rights Clinic, and too many more to name
SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT
Betzy Portillo
SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT
Betzy Portillo is a first-generation law student born to Salvadoran immigrants. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine with dual undergraduate degrees in Criminology and Political Science. Betzy currently works as a victim advocate in the Human Sex Trafficking Section of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in addition to her part-time studies in Southwestern’s evening program. She is looking forward to a career in public interest law.
Julissa Salgueiro
SOUTHWESTERN
SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT
Julissa has over twenty years of civil litigation experience and civil procedure is her specialty. Her public interest work includes volunteering for Imagine LA, a non-profit organization working to end homelessness; volunteering as part of food and clothing drives for the unhoused throughout the year; and provides legal assist on a volunteer basis for monolingual Spanish-speakers through English-Spanish document translation and interpretation. She believes that fighting for people’s rights is essential in the movement to end discrimination by demanding equality no matter how difficult that undertaking will be She is determined to fulfill her purpose of making a difference by becoming the tool needed to tighten the bolts for the greater good of society and amplify someone’s voice that otherwise would be unheard
PUBLIC-INTEREST LAW
Student Organization Volunteer Achievement Award
Honoring a student organization who, as a whole, has demonstrated the most significant contribution to public service activities and engagement both on- and off-campus during the academic year.
Mass Incarceration Awareness Law Society
The Mass Incarceration Awareness Law Society (MIALS) is a national award-winning service organization founded at Southwestern to bring awareness to social injustice perpetuated by the criminal legal and carceral systems This year, MIALS has organized events, such as the Ending Mass Incarceration Speaker Series, inviting Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia, and City Attorney Jose Eguribe to speak on their respective offices' intersection with the criminal legal and carceral systems. In partnership with Initiate Justice, MIALS continues to host their signature service project, the Mail Night Project, in answering mail from inside members to provide information on policy and laws affecting their convictions and confinement. MIALS inspires conversations on campus, and challenges others to think holistically about the role that mass incarceration and the criminal legal system plays in society.
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Congratulations to the graduating students
who have fulfilled the Public Service Pledge
C L A S S
Jonah Anderson
Aaron Bowers
Diana Cazares
Meshi Chitrit
Austin Dragoo
Lauren Espina
Nathalie Garcia
Angelica Gonzalez
Mierna Hagehassan
Emily Karsik
Jenna Karvunidis
Christen MacLeod
Katelyn Marshall
Herbert Martinez
Vivian Meza
Vianney Munoz
Andrea Mirzakhanian
Camelia Moher
Lorenzo Orozco, Jr.
Pinar Ozhabes
Tina Petrosian
Betzy Portillo
Julissa Salgueiro
Stephanie Thackeray
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Congratulations to our 2023 PILC Summer Grant Recipients!
I L C G R A N T R E C I P I E N T S
Cynthia Aceves
Diana Aguilar
Jennifer Alvarez
Shadi Azad
Karin Bachar
Francisco Castro
Bianca de la Vega
Natalie Diaz
Edwin Giron-Montenegro
Daniel Golub
Sierra Gonzales
Anahi Gonzalez
Karen Herrera
Katherine Koeller
Sarah Kreager
Sydney Mathis
Aspen Medley
Ester Mendez
Karla Munoz
Diana Perez
Adilene Ramirez
Greg Raygoza
Samara Renteria
Hugo Stern
Maria Lianne Urriza
Yasmin Wilber
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