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50 students awarded summer stipends
Release Date: May 16, 2008
This summer, students will serve courts and government, legal aid and non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. and in 11 countries.
Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Sue Kay has announced that 50 Vanderbilt law students will pursue summer work in the public service sector or in government offices around the world, funded in part by public interest and Vanderbilt law stipends.
“We have students going to courts and government, legal aid and not-for-profit organizations all over the U.S. and to Azerbaijan, Belgium, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Peru, Switzerland, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and The Netherlands,” Dean Kay said. “They’ll be working on projects addressing human rights, civil rights and civil liberties, federal communications and antitrust regulation, peacekeeping and counterterrorism, international intellectual property rights, domestic violence, family law, immigration, environmental law, criminal law, health and child advocacy, general legal aid and establishing the rule of law.”
Twenty students received stipends through the student Legal Aid Society’s Public Interest Stipend Fund, and 30 received summer stipends from Vanderbilt Law School, including stipends funded by the Regulatory and Environmental Law programs.
The Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society’s Public Interest Stipends are available to students who pursue projects that support traditionally under-served populations. The stipends are awarded on a competitive basis. Students apply by submitting proposals detailing their projects, and recipients are selected by based on the merits of their proposals. Rebekah Sidhu is the recipient of the Bass, Berry and Sims Stipend, funded by the firm. She will be working with the Medical Legal Collaborative between the Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands and Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. The remaining Public Interest Stipends are funded by annual contributions to the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society from alumni, faculty and students as well as through endowment.
“We’re truly grateful to alumni, faculty, firms such as Bass, Berry & Sims and Vanderbilt’s Legal Aid Society and other student organizations, whose generous contributions to the Public Interest Stipend Fund make these summer grants possible,” Dean Kay said.
Students awarded 2008 summer stipends include:
- Danny Agai, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
- David Bartz, chambers of the Honorable Juliet Griffin, Federal Magistrate, Middle District of Tennessee
- Ashley Bassel, Federal Public Defender’s Office, Middle Tennessee
- Genet Berhane, Tennessee Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Nashville
- Benjamin Berlin, World Organization for Human Rights, Washington, D.C.
- Colby Block, Department of Justice – Civil Division, Washington, D.C.
- Yun Chen, Federal Public Defender’s Office, Middle Tennessee
- McCormick Conforti, Department of Justice – Antitrust Division, Washington, D.C.
- Katie Connors, Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office-Appellate Division, Boston Massachusetts
- Beth Cruz, Research Assistant, Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, The Netherlands
- Brenton Culpepper, Federal Public Defender’s Office – Middle Tennessee
- Andrew Cunningham, chambers of the Honorable Jack Jacobs, Delaware Supreme Court, Wilmington
- Alexander Denton, chambers of the Honorable Eugene Siler, Senior Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, London, Kentucky
- Fahren Devine, Irish Centre for Human Rights, Galway, Ireland
- Renee Erickson, American Civil Liberties Union, GLBT Project, Nashville
- Rebecca Everhardt, U.S. Mission to ER, Brussels, Belgium
- Elizabeth Fisher, law clerk to Justice Edna Arbel, Supreme Court of Israel, Jerusalem
- Andrew Free, Community Services Team, Holland & Knight, Washington, D.C.
- Shannon Fyfe, Office of the Prosecutor, United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Arusha, Tanzania
- Charles Gardner, United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy
- Andi Gervais, Special Court Sierra Leone-Office of Prosecutor, Freetown, Sierra Leone
- Rachel Elizabeth Gore, Special Court for Sierra Leone, Office of Prosecutor, Freetown, Sierra Leone
- Camielle Green, Jamaica Fair Trading Commission, Kingston, Jamaica
- Victoria Britton Greer, District Attorney’s Office, Murfreesboro
- Nicole S. Gronneberg, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
- Skelly Harper, Service Employees International Union, Washington, D.C.
- Todd J. Hartley, Amercian Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, Baku, Azerbaijan
- Katie Hull, Irish Centre for Human Rights, Galway, Ireland
- Yungbi Ann Jang, Heath & Human Services Team, City Attorney’s Office, San Francisco
- Jamie Lynn Kern, Instituto de Defensa Legal, Lima, Peru
- Patrick Lynch (Environmental Stipend), Office of General Counsel, Riverkeeper, Tarrytown, New York
- Rob McRight, Martin Luther King Jr. intern, Legal Aid of North Carolina-New Bern
- Aisha McWeay, Metropolitan Nashville Public Defender’s Office
- David Medalia, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Consulate, Milan, Italy
- Alexander Rafael Perez, Volunteer Lawyer’s Program, Houston, Texas
- Elizabeth Renieris, Department of State – Office of Peacekeeping, Sanctions & Counterterrorism, Washington, D.C.
- Peter Routhier, World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
- Aurelia Schultz, City Attorney’s Office, San Francisco
- Ben Seeger (Regulatory Stipend), Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C.
- Allyson Shelby, Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Rebekah Sidhu, Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands and Medical Legal Partnership for Children
- Hannah Smith, chambers of the U.S. District Court judges, Tampa, Florida
- Karen Spain, Southern Migrant Legal Services, Nashville
- Jamie Lynn Thalgott, chambers of the Honorable James Mahan, U.S. District Court for Nevada, Las Vegas
- Gabe Warren, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York
- Katie White, Human Rights Division, Office of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C.
- Lauren Winter, United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization, Rome Italy
- Lindsey Winthrop, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California, San Diego
- Christine You (Regulatory Stipend), Department of Energy – Intellectual Property Law Division, Chicago
- Nancy Zeronda, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York
