Category: Scholarship

Kennedi’s Winning Essay

Losing my father and other family members into the criminal justice system brought my attention to the law. Many of them were on their “third strike” and had public defenders who seemed to be on their tenth case of the day. 

The odds were against their favor since birth; their environment and education were poor. 

Observing minority and low-income communities like mine not being able to advance inspired me to choose a career centered around service to these affected communities. I want to help members of these impoverished communities to protect their legal and economic rights, which will allow them to improve and sustain wealth.

Failed businesses are a feature characteristic of broken communities, like those in my hometown. These communities have no sources to establish wealth, let alone a stable income, because businesses are continuously failing. Residents have limited ways to provide for themselves, so they resort to other means. Sometimes this can involve criminal action. 

In the midst of this reality, however, I have seen creative energy and entrepreneurship that can save the lives of families like mine. I have a family member who was in and out of juvenile and jail his whole life. He opened his own trucking business to help people around my hometown move. Since its opening, he has not been back.

As a lawyer, I want to help small business entrepreneurs establish their foundations as stable businesses with products protected from infringement by large corporations and other businesses. Many of them are first-generation entrepreneurs, or they lack proper training to run a business successfully over the long term. I created a free website to help educate small businesses on the basics and importance of protecting their product. It is not legal advice, but a simple guide to help different entrepreneurs I see operating in my communities. 

I believe two major purposes of the law are to punish and protect. I want to learn more about how to combat the negative effects resulting from using the law more as punishment and understand the views of those who promote this purpose over protection. 

I think punishment has been overused by the American legal system, especially in minority and low-income communities. Experiencing the punitive effects of the law pushed me to want to promote protection over punishment. Learning from and working with other students who share my view of the law and those who share the opposing view, will allow me to gain an understanding of both, and incorporate each equally in my future strategies and legal practice. 

I want to promote a more balanced perspective of the law among my peers to help us have an open-minded approach to the law. Receiving the The Law Offices of Andrew Dressel LLC Social Justice Scholarship will help me to attend school, so that I can promote a prospective an application of the law that is fair and provides opportunity for equity.

Omar’s Winning Essay:

“Are you sure? A lot could change within a year.” 

In 2019, I decided to take a gap year after college and understood the worry in my mother’s voice. Thoughts of my grandmother’s struggles during her immigration to the U.S., my mother dropping out of community college after her first semester due to hardship, and fears of deportation of family members raced through my mind. Uncertainty has been a prevailing theme in our family, and pausing my studies meant that I assumed a risk for my future and my family’s.

This uncertainty in my personal life led me to the New Sanctuary Coalition (NSC) during college and my gap year. At NSC, I assisted families facing uncertainties surrounding deportation by conducting intake interviews and preparing asylum petitions. 

One of my most rewarding cases was when our friend Gerardo and his four-year-old son were granted asylum. They fled Nicaragua from persecution after Gerardo refused to join the Sandinista Youth in the government regime’s suppression efforts. 

For fourteen months, I volunteered late nights with Gerardo as an interpreter, drafted his asylum petition, retrieved articles from Nicaragua that highlighted the political turmoil, and prepared him for his hearing. Thanks to the NSC community, Gerardo is now reunited with his mother, and he is raising his son in peace and earning a living doing what he loves – baking. 

This experience motivated me to become a lawyer and I enrolled at Seton Hall Law School. However, my mother’s concerns for our future were well-founded. Unfortunately, as I am approaching the end of my 1L year, my family has been separated from my stepfather, who was undocumented and had his inadmissibility waiver revoked due to an oversight while applying for a visa in April 2023. He is now in Ecuador indefinitely while he secures another approved waiver in two to three years. 

Without my stepfather at home, I must contribute financially and help my mother raise my two brothers and care for my elderly grandmother while I finish law school. As a full-time student, this affects the financing of my law school studies, as I must now be a provider for my family. 

However, I am prepared to make sacrifices for those I love while still pursuing my law degree. This summer, I am interning for Judge Madeline Elizabeth Cox Arleo in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey in Newark. In addition, I was fortunate to be selected to join Seton Hall Law Review for the upcoming academic year. 

While I will be seeking part-time work during the semester to help my family, the The Law Offices of Andrew Dressel LLC Social Justice Scholarship would tremendously help us navigate this hardship during my 2L year by covering tuition costs so that I can better help pay for my family’s expenses.

As I reflect on these difficult times, I realize that the uncertainty felt by immigrant families is compounded by barriers such as hardship, language, and the inability to navigate inaccessible institutional systems. 

I have felt the weight of these barriers throughout my life. I felt them when the Child Study Team at my school gave my mother a document requesting a psychological evaluation of me for special education due to my attention deficit disorder. The diagnosis turned out to be false and I now keep that document as a reminder of why community support and educational access are so important.

After graduation, I plan to remain in New Jersey and pay it forward to my community in Hudson County, New Jersey. Currently, I serve as a mentor to high school students in the American Dream Pipeline Program of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey. 

As a first-generation law student, I understand the challenges of preparing for higher education and the importance of small gestures and what they can do to point a young person in the right direction in the college and law school admissions processes.

Before law school, I coached a youth baseball league for two years in my home town of North Bergen, NJ. I enjoyed teaching and was also able to inculcate the importance of discipline and higher education in them. Without the support of friends and community resources, being a college graduate and a provider for my household would not have been possible.

Continuing my legal education will equip me with the tools and knowledge to help other families navigate the legal frameworks and uncertainties that exist in our everyday lives. One day, I hope to be a scholarship donor and support the next generation of rising lawyers from Hudson County.

Daniel’s Winning Essay:

We are pleased to announce the winner of our Spring 2023 Social Justice Scholarship is Daniel Valverde, a student in the Masters of Public Administration program at University of San Francisco. Valverde’s studies focus on the equitable development of affordable housing.

In his application, Valverde stressed that his previous work experience had “helped me understand how land-use planning and decisions are vital to future sustainability, population, and economic growth for communities. But it is also important to be mindful to implement land use policies that will make communities equitable and inclusive for all community members.”

Valverde’s focus on bridging the gap between scholarly research and the real-world is what made Daniel’s scholarship application stand out to firm founders Andrew Dressel and Chris Malikschmitt.

“We always say education is the foundation from which change is built,” said Andrew Dressel. “When it comes to affordable housing policy, we mean that literally. The research Daniel is doing could have a huge impact on communities across the country.”

“We are proud to support Daniel in his studies,” added Chris Malikschmitt. “We share his passion for making the world a better place.”

Valverde received a $1,000 scholarship from The Law Offices of Andrew Dressel LLC for the Spring 2023 semester. This is the third time the firm has awarded this scholarship, and it plans to continue doing so. Students interested in applying for the Fall 2023 award should visit stag.webx.win/scholarship.

Ronion’s Winning Essay:

Matt’s winning essay:

I have worked with children and their families as a middle school teacher and basketball coach for the past seven years. From Brookyln to the Bronx to Chicago, immersing myself into diverse communities has essentially been at the heart of my job. Although I originally planned to attend law school immediately after graduating from college in 2012, I decided to spend a year teaching instead and genuinely enjoyed it so much that I decided to continue much longer. Besides my love for kids in general, the reason this work was so gratifying for me is because it gave me an opportunity to push, motivate, and inspire the youth who hold unlimited potential.

Ultimately, however, I decided that I could make a greater impact on the field of education with a law degree. I am particularly sensitive to issues relating to children who deal with trauma, and my interest in family law stems from my desire to ensure all kids feel safe both at school and at home. I come from a large family—my parents had six children and adopted three children as well. To this day, I admire the resiliency and positive attitude of my adopted siblings who were unable to meet or establish a healthy relationship with their biological parents. Yet my teaching experience has shown me that there are too many children who deal with trauma in ways that affect their ability to learn, and they often do not have someone who will strongly advocate for them. In many cases it seems that the legal system has failed these children, and I am hoping to be a part of the solution.

I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago and have lived on the south side of Chicago for the past two years. I currently work part-time for my state representative in the 33rd district of Illinois, which includes parts of Chicago. This community is very special to me. While I cannot say for sure what I will be doing ten years from now—practicing family law, working for the Department of Education, going into politics, or opening my own school—I can say for sure that my desire is to work in a way that gives back to the children and families in Chicago.