51 law students receive bar foundation scholarships

The California Bar Foundation awarded $282,500 to 51 California law students last month, more than half through its diversity program and the remainder to public interest lawyers-to-be. Twenty-eight students from underserved communities who demonstrate academic excellence, financial need and commitment to the community received $180,000 in scholarships, and 23 aspiring public interest lawyers were awarded $102,500. Many of the awards are named after California law firms and corporations that have made multi-year commitments to the foundation’s scholarship program.

Recipients of the public interest scholarships are:

Brian Bevan, California Western School of Law;
Harmony Groves and Jonah Minkoff-Zern (Jim Pfeiffer Scholar), Golden Gate University School of Law;
Joanna Furmanska, Loyola Law School;
Nancy L. Haley, Santa Clara University School of Law;
Bruce Ho, Erin Mohan, Esteban Morin and Mira R. Serrill-Robins, Stanford Law School;
Ian Fein, Lauren Groth, Emily Holland and Emma De Fatima Regidor (Seyfarth Shaw Scholar), UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall);
Scott Grzenczyk and Scott Vignos, UC Davis School of Law (King Hall);
Nedda Black and Henry Steinberg, UC Hastings College of the Law;
David Smith (Milstein, Adelman & Kreger Scholar), Georgina Wakefield (Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP Scholar) and Diana Wang, UCLA School of Law;
and Amy Wan, Matthew C. Watts and Ryan Wolfe, University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Since 1992, the foundation has awarded more than $2.5 million in Public Interest Scholarships to more than 575 students attending 27 California law schools.

The diversity scholarship recipients are:

Ana Cisneros Alvarez and Sabrina Rivera, Loyola Law School;
Lizbeth Najera Muñoz, Santa Clara University School of Law;
Jahmy Stanford Graham (Girardi & Keese Scholar) and Martha S. Torres-Ortiz, Southwestern Law School;
Ashly Nikkole Davis (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation Scholar) and Rakim Johnson (Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin Scholar), Stanford Law School;
Kristen A. Corpion, Sonja Francine Marie Diaz, Nancy Franco (Calvo & Clark LLP Scholar), Homaira Hosseini (Fenwick & West LLP Scholar), Christine L. Ingram (UPS and Morrison & Foerster Scholar), Darren Modzelewski (Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP Scholar), Diana Rashid (Keker & Van Nest LLP Scholar), Jade Smith and Nancy Thai (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Foundation Scholar), UC Berkeley School of Law;
Ana I. Baires Mira (SNR Denton Scholar), Jessica Maria Flores (Keesal, Young & Logan Scholar), Tajuana Gray (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Scholar), Susana Naranjo (The Morrison & Foerster Foundation Scholar), Esmeralda Santos (Board of Directors Scholar) and Eric Yang , UC Hastings College of the Law;
Alexander Chávez (Southern California Edison Scholar), Paul Jung (Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas & Electric Scholar), Rosa Noyola (Lim Ruger Foundation Scholar), Tania T. Nuñez Amador (Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP Scholar) and Yecenia Olmos (Board of Directors Scholar), UCLA School of Law;
and Naeema Ahmed (Buchalter Nemer Scholar), University of San Francisco School of Law.

Since the foundation launched the Diversity Scholarship Program in 2008, it has awarded more than $420,000 to 70 California law students.