Five students awarded scholarships

California Bar Foundation awards nearly $20,000 in scholarships

—By Lori Craig

The California Bar Foundation recently awarded scholarships to five USC Law students and two USC Law alumnae.

Third-year student Elizabeth Gonzalez and second-year students Ashley Johndro and Rebecca Raizman received $2,500 Public Interest Scholarships for their demonstrated commitment to public service. All three were nominated by USC Law Student Services staff and selected by the CBF.

Two first-year students, Cristina Pena and Marwa Mohamed Rifahie, applied for and received the inaugural CBF Diversity Scholarship, which supports 1Ls from racial or ethnic groups that have been historically underrepresented in the legal profession. Pena, recognized as a top scholar, was named the Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP Scholar and received a $7,500 award to assist with tuition and other education-related expenses.

Scholarship recipients with CBF Board Pres. Scott Wylie, second from left. Recipients left to right: Rebecca Raizman, Ashley Johndro, Cristina Pena, Elizabeth Gonzalez and Marwa Mohamed Rifahie.

The students, accompanied by Assistant Director of Financial Aid and Student Affairs Liam Gillen, were honored during the State Bar of California Annual Meeting in Monterey, Calif., in September.

“The awarding of scholarship money from outside sources is a winning situation for both the student recipient and USC Law,” Gillen said. “Outside scholarship assistance allows students to borrow less during law school. The ability to borrow less in school can produce significant savings for our students over the years. At the same time, members in the legal profession become more aware of the significant accomplishments of USC Law students.”

Gonzalez said public interest work is important to her in part because she comes from a community in need of public interest attorneys.

“I grew up in a lower-income, Latino neighborhood where issues of education inequality, immigration, predatory lending, and civil rights violations were always present,” said Gonzalez, an L.A.-area native who received her undergraduate degree from USC. “When I decided to attend law school, I felt an obligation — and I don't mean that in a ‘burden’ sort of way — to provide legal services to communities like my own. One of the things I have tried to do at the law school is to stress the importance of helping those in need of legal help both when you are a law student as well as when you are a practicing attorney.”

“That moment reinforced what I had promised myself when I got to law school and why: I came from a place where legal help was needed but unaffordable, and I wanted to help,” Gonzalez said. “The fact that I was able to help someone after just a few months of being in law school brought my whole USC Law experience to a new level.”

Pena, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, also has her eye on public interest work and said the Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal award takes her one step closer to starting a public interest career after graduation.

The only American-born child of Mexican immigrants, Pena has served as a bridge between Spanish speakers and their broader community since she was a child. It was during college, when she volunteered her interpretation services to San Francisco attorneys handling pro bono family law cases, that she decided she wanted to become a lawyer.

“I started realizing the desperate need that my community had for access to the legal system,” Pena said. “I was surprised that the court didn’t require monolingual clients to be provided interpreters in the courtroom.

“I began recognizing my mother’s face and my aunt’s face within these women who were looking for ways to get out of dangerous and hopeless situations, and using the law as a way to do that. I also recognized that I was in a unique situation to do something about it.”