UNM School of Law Sponsoring An All-Expenses-Paid Pre-Law Summer Program
for Native American College Freshmen and Sophomores
The UNM School of Law, in conjunction with the American Indian Law Center, was awarded a grant through the Law School Admissions Council’s DiscoverLaw.org Plus Program to conduct a four-week pre-law program targeting undergraduate students at the end of their first or second year of college. Students will attend classes in the UNM School of Law. Students will engage in academic coursework focusing on Indian Law and Native legal issues, receive career and academic advising, learn more about the law school admission process, and receive mentoring by Native attorneys, judges, law school faculty, and students. The program will run from June 3 to July 6, 2010 on the UNM campus and applicants will come from all across the United States.
The program builds on a very successful pre-law program that has been running for 40 years at the University of New Mexico that is also a joint project between the School of Law and the American Indian Law Center. That program, which is geared toward students in the summer before they enter law school immediately, has helped the ranks of American Indian lawyers grow nationally from a handful to more than a thousand in the last several decades. This new DiscoverLaw.org PLUS program is intended to make a similar difference with a younger cohort to create a better pipeline to law school for American Indians.
UNM School of Law Dean Kevin Washburn, a member of the Chickasaw Nation and a graduate of one of the American Indian Law Center’s summer programs, credits the program with helping him complete law school and succeed in practice: “The Pre-Law Summer Institute at UNM gave me support and direction for what has been a very successful career in the law; I could not imagine my career without this seminal experience and I hope that others find their way through this new program.”
For the students accepted, the program is without cost. There are no tuition or housing charges, and participants will receive a living stipend and a travel allowance to assist them in getting to/from Albuquerque. Students will be housed in UNM dorms. The program, which begins on June 3, is still accepting applications from American Indian college students nationwide. However, interested students are encouraged to apply as soon as possible for best consideration. For more information visit the program’s website at http://lawschool.unm.edu/na-plus/index.php or contact the program directly at na-plus@law.unm.edu or 505-277-3253.
Turtle Talk 