Patrick Malone & Associates announces 2016 winners of law school scholarships for “Representing Real People”
In 2016, two law students each received $5,000 scholarships from Patrick Malone & Associates in the first year of the firm’s “Representing Real People” law school scholarship program. “It was very hard picking the winners from so many wonderfully qualified and dedicated applicants,” said Patrick Malone, president of the firm. “In fact it was so hard that I decided to expand our awards and give two $1,000 scholarships to runners-up in addition to our previously announced $5,000 scholarships.”
The winners of $5,000 scholarships are:
Bailey Wendzel of San Clemente, California. She will attend Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. as a first-year student this fall. Ms. Wendzel is a 2013 graduate of Brown University. She most recently has acted as program director for a clinic for mentally ill patients in San Francisco operated by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She helped set up a project called “mentor on discharge,” to provide peer mentors to patients coming out of inpatient psychiatric stays to help them stay on course and avoid the need to be rehospitalized. She plans to use her law training to advocate for mentally illindividuals and their families. Read Bailey’s Scholarship Winning Essay here: bailey-wendzels-winning-essay
Alexandra Lim of Orinda, California, who will be a first-year student at Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, California. Ms. Lim is a 2013 graduate of UCLA who has worked for the last three years as a reporter for the Austin (TX) American-Statesman. She is interested in special education law and representing survivors of campus sexual assaults in administrative proceedings.
The winners of $1,000 scholarships are:
Amanda Burns of Amherst, N.Y., who will be a first-year law student at Loyola University of Chicago. Ms. Burns is a 2015 graduate of Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, and has spent the past year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working as an English and Civics teacher for immigrant and refugee adults in Atlanta, Georgia.
Maria Beltran keenly knows the value of a skilled attorney helping a family without means. When she was a little girl, her family sought political asylum in the United States, moving from a comfortable but dangerous life in Colombia to a motel room in Houston. They could not afford a private immigration attorney, but then the University of Houston Law Center took on the Beltrans at no charge and won the asylum case. She earned an undergraduate degree with honors from Northwestern University and has worked in law offices helping clients with bankruptcy and Social Security disability claims. Now she is attending U.C.-Berkeley Boalt Hall law school. The “Representing Real People” scholarships are intended for students committed to a career representing individuals, especially those of limited means. Suitable fields of law include landlord-tenant, immigration, employment, family matters, disability rights,estates and trusts, and public interest law focusing on individual rights. “Thousands of Americans every day go into courthouses with no lawyer to represent them, and they face major and sometimes devastating consequences to their lives,” said Malone. He noted that the only people who have a constitutional right to a lawyer are those facing felony criminal charges, but the civil courts conduct proceedings that can uproot a person from their home, job, and family, or cause financial ruin. “We want to encourage young people to go into careers helping these individuals.” More information about the Malone scholarship program, including eligibility and application details, can be found at: https://www.patrickmalonelaw.com/about-us/law-school-scholarship/
