Two Bay Area High Schools join California LAW Pathways Program
San Jose's Yerba Buena High School and Andrew P. Hill High School have become participants in the California LAW Pathways Program
Sacramento, CA – July 21, 2022 – East Side Union High School District has partnered with the California LAW Pathways Program to promote and support diversity in the legal profession in California. A group of leaders from the East Side Union High School District, regional advisory council representatives, including Santa Clara County Superior Court justices, and executives of California LAW Pathways met for a regional meeting held on May 17th, 2022 at the Yerba Buena High School campus in San Jose. The two high schools determined to be joining the program were announced as Yerba Buena High School and Andrew P. Hill High School.
"Our partnership with the California Law Pathways Organization (CLPO) facilitated the creation of two Law Practices Career Technical Education pathways at Andrew Hill and Yerba Buena high school in our district. The vision and mission of the founders of CPLO and the commitment of the legal professionals in Santa Clara county gave our staff the added boost and inspiration to create these pathways and to bring the opportunities for our students to explore a career in law and one that will allow them to earn a living wage in the silicon valley. Our goal is to create pathways that are academically rigorous, expose our students to legal procedures and practices, and provide our students with work-based learning opportunities where they are guided and mentored by the best practitioners of law in Santa Clara county."
- Tim Nguyen, Director of Career Services, East Side Union High School District
The California LAW (Leadership – Access – Workforce) Pathways Program (California LAW) is an organization created to be the foundational structure that connects, communicates, collaborates, and coordinates with programs working to help diverse students enter the legal profession.
California LAW consists of 24 high school law academies created under the California Partnership Academy (CPA) model is a unique collaboration between the State Bar of California and the California Department of Education. Additionally, California LAW includes members of the Community College Pathway to Law School Initiative, which includes 29 community colleges throughout the state and ten undergraduate institutions and their law schools, resulting in an educational pipeline into the legal profession created under the leadership of the State Bar of California’s Council on Access and Fairness.
By participating in the California LAW program, Yerba Buena High School and Andrew P. Hill High School will work with community colleges and 4-year universities and law schools throughout the state to encourage diverse students to pursue higher education with a goal toward ultimately having a career in a legal system that best represents the population of California and the world we live in. In doing so, these schools continue their outstanding work supporting ethnically and racially diverse student populations.
Congratulations to more of our 2021/2022 Pathway Scholar Graduates!
The California LAW Board and the Foundation for California Community Colleges extend a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to our Community College Pathway Scholar graduates. Each year our Community College Faculty Champions provide the names of graduating students, and Cal LAW provides certificates to congratulate and acknowledge our students as official Pathway Scholars.
Based on information from our Faculty Champions for 2021 and 2022, the following Community College Pathway Scholars are being acknowledged:
Antelope Valley College: Maria del Rosario Rodriguez, Rocio Rivera, Lauren Squires, Samantha Guillen, David Bastidas, Velia McConnell, Celine Perez, Jose Caballero, Francisco Maldonado, Brieann LaRouche, Sara Negro, Refugio Rodriguez Ruiz
East Los Angeles College: Brooke Abbott, Icela Adame, Jazmin Alcaraz, Abigail Brito, Evan Farias, Lorena Gonzalez, Lyon Guevara, Celina Maldonado, Jessica Pierce, Evangelina Rodriguez, Evelyn Martinez Guerra, Ricardo Gonzalez
Fresno City College: Aren Sanikian, Juanita Hobab, Amanda Darby, Sarah Sevy, Christina Silva, Jessica Cortez, Anna Medrano, Esmeralda Mendoza, Leslie Casillas, Yatzari Victoria, Chloe Metzger-Janes, Kimberly Chavez, Kyana Lopez, Jiselle Cardenas, Liliana Jimenez, Daisy Ramirez, Jose Diaz, Zofia Trexler, Aridai Dominguez
Rio Hondo College: Calista Medina, Jariah Moore
Santa Monica College: Usife Ahmad, Luis Allen, Omar Almi, Katrina Attallah, Stephanie Ayala, Jeanine Grimes, Liana Karapetyan, Diana Martinez, Rafael Mattingly Sanchez, Laura Montoya, Cristal Ramirez, Tania Ramon, Citlali Rodriguez, Nadia Ruiz, Jasmine Wilfong
For our Faculty Champions, please remember to submit the names of your graduating Pathway Scholars each year, so we can send individual student certificates to be presented during your annual graduation ceremonies. Please email us at info@calawpathways.org.
Student Highlight | Zofia Trexler
Fresno City College
California LAW Pathways congratulates Zofia Trexler for receiving the Fresno City College Dean's Medallion award!
Zofia was featured in an ABC News article and was also a 2022 recipient of the Ruthe C. Ashley Scholarship award presented earlier this year at the February California LAW Pathways Pathway to Law Summit.
"Zofia is so deserving of this success. She has worked hard and earned everything coming to her." - Ruthe C. Ashley, Chair, California LAW Pathways Advisory Board
Congratulations, Zofia!
“Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787 by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.”
Note that publicly funded educational institutions and federal agencies are
required to celebrate the day by providing educational programming
about the history of the Constitution.
Executive Corner| A message from Executive Director, Pamela C. Enslen
Greetings!
I hope you all are having a wonderful summer! Here at Cal LAW, we are experiencing several changes. First, Ruthe Ashley has assumed the role of Chair of our Advisory Board. Ruthe has been involved in pathways issues for many years and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the chair position. We are excited to work with her as we take Cal LAW into the future. Many sincere thanks to our outgoing Chair, Dave Smith, who served for 5 years with outstanding dedication and determination to serve the mission and vision of Cal LAW. Fortunately, Dave will remain on the Board and Executive Committee, so we will continue to benefit from his excellent service.
We are also expanding our staff! A new Associate Director of Outreach and Implementation will be joining Cal LAW very soon. By filling this new position, Cal LAW staff will be able to spend more valuable time working directly with our partners in high schools, community colleges, 4-year institutions and law schools. We will also be able to devote quality time to development efforts, so that Cal LAW may better support our partners, build a network of volunteers and supporters, and expand the program. Once the new Associate Director is officially on board, I will provide more information to formally introduce him to you all. Soon, I will also be advertising for a Program Specialist position, so if you have an interest in working with Cal LAW, please watch for that job posting in the future. Our work here at Cal LAW is exciting and impactful, and I would love to hear from anyone interested in joining us. I continue to hear from individuals, law firms, and businesses interested in volunteering to work with Cal LAW. If you or someone you know are interested in joining us in a volunteer capacity as a committee member, board member, student mentor, classroom speaker, internship sponsor, or field trip organizer, please get in touch with me. We have many exciting and inspirational opportunities for community members to serve.
As always, if any of you have questions or comments about the operation and impact of Cal LAW, please feel free to reach out to me directly at pchapmanenslen@foundationccc.org.
Chair's Corner| Ruthe C. Ashley
I am so delighted to be the new Chair of the California LAW Pathways Board. This has been my passion and mission since 2010 when we started the first six high school law academies with grants from the California Department of Education and a partnership with the State Bar of California. This was California’s first “boots on the ground” pipeline project focused on diversity in the legal profession. These first law academies were the result of years of preparation and research on diversity pipeline issues around the state and so many were involved from the beginning to build this organization.
With this first column, I want to start a historical perspective and say “Thank You” to those founders, trailblazers and pioneers who truly jump started the pipeline diversity work in California starting with former Dean of McGeorge School of Law, Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, who built the first law student/high school student mentoring program in 2002 with McGeorge Law Students walking to nearby Sacramento High in a mentoring program that showed us the value of working directly with diverse high school students. She also hired Professor Sarah Redfield to research the value of educational diversity pipeline work and also started a nationally known conference called “Wingspread” to bring others committed to diversity to start the conversation about building a pipeline into the legal profession.
I’ll continue on my next column with more of the background and history of pipeline work in California and how the national influences including the American Bar Association helped open doors and lead the way.
Until next time….
Warm aloha,
Ruthe
Photo: Students from 2 of our first high school law academies, De Anza High School and Florin High School, doing legislative visits in Sacramento during our lobbying day.
Meet our New Advisory Board Members
Submit Your Photos and Student Stories
Have photos to share? Want to highlight your program or one of your students? We invite all Faculty Champions to submit any relevant photos and stories for an opportunity to be highlighted on the California LAW website and resource materials.
Best regards,
California LAW Pathways
1102 Q Street, Suite 4800
Sacramento, CA 95811
calawpathways.org
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