Life of a Fellow: Why Equal Justice Works?

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This is a guest post in our Life of a Fellow series from Zoe Paolantonio an Equal Justice Works Fellow. Zoe is currently working for the Northeastern University Domestic Violence Institute.

If you are reading this blog, you’re probably in the same place I was two years ago: a law student dedicated to working in the public interest, applying for an Equal Justice Works fellowship with a great idea, a host organization and a prayer. In the fall of my third year in law school, the financial markets began crashing. Obama hadn’t been elected president yet and the nation was asking, “Just who is Sarah Palin anyway?” One-by-one the banks were going under and no one knew how to fix the problems. Law firms began their layoffs. The job front looked bleak, and my friends and I were scared. What would become of us?

That September, I submitted my fellowship application to Equal Justice Works. I believed in my project; to place legal services for domestic violence victims in the Emergency Department of Boston Medical Center, where victims in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods often first turn for help. I believed in my host organization, where I had been volunteering for the past three years.  However, I did not really believe I had a shot at getting chosen. I was the first student at my very small law school (in the same city as Harvard) to apply for an Equal Justice Works Fellowship and when I pressed “submit” I never thought I would hear from them again. Fast forward to December 2008. Obama was elected president, and for the first time in a long time, everyone believed that we could make a difference. I was in the library around five in the evening, cramming for my Wills Trusts and Estates final the next day. Surrounded by candy wrappers, empty Starbucks cups and a handful of my stressed out girlfriends, I checked my phone, and saw I had a missed call from New York City. The message was from the Pro Bono department at Pfizer, Inc. They loved my Equal Justice Works application. I returned their call right away and arranged to come down after my tests the next week. I was shocked and elated—this could really happen!

That weekend, a nor’easter dumped three feet of snow on all of New England. I spent my time cramming for my interview. On Sunday afternoon, I packed carefully and waded to Back Bay Station to catch my train to New York City. On the morning of my interview, while staying at my sister’s apartment in New York, I managed to lock myself in the bathroom.  After panicking and finally getting out of the bathroom I made it to the interview after all! In the end, I was on time, and the interview went fine. Pfizer called to offer me the fellowship on Christmas Eve, so it all worked out in the end. This is one of my favorite stories to tell—about the fellowship that I almost didn’t get. But I got it— so you can go get one too.