The Law Offices of James A. Welcome want today’s students to think critically about how current legislative orders impact the health of their communities and how they, as students, can push for change.
The Strategies for Local Laws Scholarship awards $2,500 to a student with a standout commitment to improving the quality of life in their communities and for people in need.
This year’s $2,500 goes to Diana Cruz, a law student at Columbia Law School. Cruz’s scholarship essay paints a picture of the ways justice can fail certain communities, be that through lack of accessibility or unwelcoming political environments.
However, Cruz’s essay also asserts her intent to transform the system from the inside out and ensure that immigrant families can work within the United States’ legal system, regardless of the boundaries in their way.
Our Waterbury personal injury lawyers applaud Cruz’s commitment and hope that their support can help her achieve her goals.
Deportation Risks in Modern America
Cruz’s scholarship essay begins with an honest look into the challenges that come with the immigration process. While her parents tried to navigate the court system, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and inattentive attorneys put them at risk for deportation.
Cruz’s childhood, by her description, was an exercise in inconsistency while her parents fought for her right to grow up in the United States. “I spent my tenth birthday sleeping on a relative’s living room floor,” she says, “because we were too afraid to sleep in our own home while we searched for a new apartment under my older brother’s name.”
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Questioning the Inaccessibility of Justice
Her parents’ experience with the immigration process served as one of many incidents that, in Cruz’s words, revealed that “justice is never given, but a hard-fought battle.” She goes on to say that, “Often, the legal tools needed to effectively engage in the struggle are inaccessible to communities like mine.”
“Access to legal counsel in immigration court is not required by current legislation, but has life-altering effects on communities like mine,” she continues. “This dawning realization of inaccessibility to life-altering resources quickly became apparent in many facets of my daily life.”
She describes watching doctors mishandle her mother’s breast cancer treatment, to life-threatening effect, along with “the year-long failure to diagnose [her] father’s congestive heart failure.”
This, on top of her parents’ immigration struggles, her brother’s “arbitrary imprisonment,” and efforts to discredit her peers in school, left Cruz at odds with justice.
Fighting for More Accessible Support
Instead of letting herself fall victim to despair, Cruz witnessed all of the hardship in her life and decided to fight back. She connected with community advocacy groups and pursued an education that taught her more about the governing systems that dictated the care and keeping of her loved ones.
She notes that her “engagement with activist groups demonstrated…the power of advocacy found amongst community.” Her work with Al Otro Lado, a legal non-profit, allowed her to learn more about how accessible legal services can help a community in and out of courtrooms, offering “holistic services” to people in need.
It was her disappointment with her family’s experience within the legal system that inspired Cruz’s passion for a legal career, though. “While legal counsel in immigration cases is not a current legislative reality, I hope to become an immigration attorney to dilute the reality’s deleterious effects.”
What to Expect From Diana Cruz
Cruz plans on using her winnings from the Strategies for Local Laws Scholarship to pay for housing ahead of her next semester at Columbia Law School.
In addition to pursuing her Juris Doctor Degree, she intends to remain active with the Latin American Law Students Association and the pre-law mentorship programs for Latinx students at Columbia University.
Cruz isn’t stopping there. She plans to continue working as a staff editor with Columbia Law’s Jailhouse Lawyers’ Manual, as well as an Admissions Student Ambassador and a Research Assistant.
When asked about her future, Cruz says that she aspires to be an attorney “because I view knowledge of the law as a source of power, destructive if inequitable, but a source of hope and opportunity if used to assist society’s most vulnerable.”
She hopes to begin her career with a high-intensity firm before transitioning into the civil rights sector.
About the Strategies for Local Laws Scholarship
The Law Offices of James A. Welcome wants to make it easier for today’s college students to overcome the financial barriers standing between them and their education.
The firm’s Strategies for Local Laws Scholarship celebrates the achievements of community-minded students who are already thinking about how legislative changes can improve community health. Applicants have a chance to win $2,500 after submitting a 1,000-word essay about:
- The challenges their communities have to overcome
- Local legislation and its impact on a community
- How changes in legislation can improve the quality of life for community members
- What steps they, the applicant, can take to encourage community change
This scholarship is available to qualifying undergraduate and graduate students. Check out the scholarship’s terms and conditions for more information about qualifying criteria and upcoming submission deadlines.
The Law Offices of James A. Welcome Applaud Diana Cruz
Diana Cruz’s scholarship essay depicts a strong, stalwart young woman intent on ensuring that others in her community have access to resources that she and her family were denied.
That determination will undoubtedly make her a stalwart ally to other immigrant families in need of support, particularly as the political and legislative landscape of the world continues to change.
The Law Offices of James A. Welcome applaud Cruz’s candor and dedication. The team hopes that the Strategies for Local Laws Scholarship can alleviate some of Cruz’s financial stress as she continues to pursue her Juris Doctor Degree.
Applicants interested in following in Cruz’s footsteps can apply for the Strategies for Local Laws Scholarship in the months to come.
