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AMERICORPS LEGAL FELLOW, CLASS OF 2009
Benjamin Long
Name of Host Organization: Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky
City, State: Richmond, Kentucky
Issue area: Consumer Rights, Housing - Affordable Housing/Microfinance
THE INSPIRATION
Having been raised in a family of educators, I was taught about the value of public service at a very young age. My parents are two of the most selfless, hardworking people I know. Their commitment to helping others has inspired me to do the same.
THE PROJECT
At the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, I will assist and represent low and moderate income Kentuckians facing home foreclosure (often as a result of imprudent and/or unfair lending practices). Additionally, I will be attempting to set up a mediation program in one or more judicial circuits that may allow more families to modify their loans and stay in their homes.
BIOGRAPHY
Hometown: | Henderson, Kentucky |
Law school: | |
Making the connection: | As an undergraduate at Transylvania University, I studied political science and was involved in social justice campaigns ranging from informing citizens about earned income tax credit to supporting a living wage for Lexington's solid waste workers. My advisor, Dr. Jeffrey Freyman, had a huge impact on my intellectual development and, more importantly, the way I view the world around me. |
Surviving law school: | During law school, I interned for environmental advocate Tom FitzGerald at the Kentucky Resources Council and for a California-based human rights firm, where I aided in the representation of South African victims of apartheid. After law school, I clerked for a federal district court judge and started to see what I learned in the classroom applied in practice. |
Recommended books: | Anything by Hermann Hesse (The Glass Bead Game and Narcissus and Goldmund are my favorites) or Ryszard Kapuscinski (I highly recommend The Shadow of the Sun and Imperium); To Kill a Mockingbird; The Unbearable Lightness of Being; the Harry Potter series |
Favorite website(s): | nytimes.com and alternet.org for news; librarything.com for books and literature; cnnsi.com for sports; freedarko.com for NBA coverage |
Words to live by: | "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." - Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird |