Public Interest Fellowship
Thank you for your interest in the APALSA 1L Public Interest Fellowship. The Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, through the Fellowship, provides grants to University of Michigan Law School students who are in their first year of law school, are dues-paying members of APALSA, and work in unpaid or low-paid summer jobs benefiting the public interest and the Asian Pacific American community.
Created in 2005, the APALSA Public Interest Fellowship provides funding to highly qualified first-year students who will work for public interest organizations during the summer following their first year of law school. The goal of the fellowship is to encourage Asian Pacific American law students to begin their careers in the public interest, nonprofit, and government sectors, where they can support and contribute to the Asian American community through their legal careers. Past recipients of the fellowship have used the funding to support their work at the OneJustice, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, and many other organizations.
The awards will be presented at our Annual Origins Banquet in the Spring. Applicants must be present at the banquet to receive the award, unless attendance is specifically waived by APALSA Executive Board on the basis of compelling extenuating circumstances. In past years, our fellowships have provided students with up to $6,000 in financial support for the summer.
Elegibility
To be eligible for this Fellowship, the applicant must:
Be a current first-year law student of the University of Michigan Law School;
Have paid dues for the 2023-2024 academic year to APALSA; and
Work in a legal public interest job during the summer of 2024 (this includes judicial internships).
Previous Fellowship Recipients
2023
Lora Zuo, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Sarah Choe, District of Columbia Public Defender Service
2022
Rabeya Mallick, Advocates for Children of New York
Zainab Bhindarwala, Legal Aid Chicago
2021
Matthew Feng, Dallas County Public Defender’s Office
Makayla Okamura, Michigan Law Pediatric Advocacy Clinic
2020
Kevin Luong, Contra Costa Public Defender’s Office
2019
Courtney Liss, U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California
Diane Kee, Planned Parenthood
2018
Jasmine Wang, Louisiana Center for Children's Rights
2017
Ginny Lee, U.S. Department of Education
Camille Danvers, Maryland Public Defender’s Office
2016
Chris Gordon, OneJustice
2015
Jennifer Chae, Legal Assistance Foundation
Rasmeet Singh, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion & Belief
2014
Kevin Kim, Los Angeles District Attorney's Office
Paul Kim, New York City Department of Education
2013
Alice Long, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Los Angeles
Anisha Asher, National Center for Youth Law
2012
Jiwon Kim, National Center for Youth Law
Shruti Dusaj, Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
2011
Anna Han, Bay Area Legal Aid
Renita Khanduja, Human Rights Law Network
2010
Mariel Block, ACLU National Securities Project
Nawreen Sattar, City Bar Justice Center
2009
Maggie Yuk Man Cheng
Faizah Malik
Atasi Satpathy Uppal
2008
Ivy Cheng
Frances Yong-Min Kim
Teresa Yi-Jia Lin
Rebecca Mary Izumi Oyama
2007
Ashwini Ranganath Habbu
Sameera Haque
Sumeera Younis