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EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS FELLOW, CLASS OF 2009
Name of Host Organization: Texas Advocacy Project
City, State: Austin, Texas
Issue area: Domestic Violence
Sponsor: Texas Access to Justice Foundation
THE INSPIRATION
From an early age, I prioritized the advocacy that all children ought to be free from instability, poverty and violence. Getting to know - and to learn from - survivors of domestic violence in my adulthood has only strengthened that initial intuition.
THE PROJECT
Economic survival. This often leads abused women with children back to their batterers. Child support payments, credit reparation and financial literacy represent under-utilized tools for survivors' economic sustainability and advancement. My project strives to develop the economic self-sufficiency of victims of domestic violence with children so that they do not need to return to their batterers for financial support.
BIOGRAPHY
Hometown: | Corpus Christi, Texas |
Law school: | |
Making the connection: | I've always rooted for the underdog. In school I aggressively sought out opportunities to work for the underserved. I worked part-time at the university or various nonprofits throughout law school and I enrolled in advanced coursework for three clinics: Capital Punishment, Criminal Defense, and Domestic Violence. Each of these shaped the way I view vulnerability and need. Each exposed me to the way that legal systems structure resources towards power, and away from the disenfranchized. Each inspired me to do more. |
Surviving law school: | I entered my law school at the start of its transition to a more public interest-oriented program. Receiving my class's Equal Justice Scholarship really allowed me to keep my finger on the pulse of the public interest community here in Austin. It instantly connected me to worthwhile events and interesting, committed people--students, lawyers, professors. Plus, my experiences with clinics and nonprofits made the classroom component of law school more interesting and valuable. |
Recommended books: | Political philosophy in novel form, particularly: Plague and The Stranger by Albert Camus; The Enormous Room by e.e. cummings; Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky; Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead by Ayn Rand; and the Roads to Freedom series by John-Paul Sartre. I also thoroughly enjoy the Harry Potter series. |
Favorite website(s): | wikipedia.org settles all my bets, and maps.google.com keeps me directed. Facebook keeps me in touch with all my friends trying out (and resenting) colder climates. On a daily basis I read articles from nytimes.com and statesman.com, and visit the headlines at the BBC, Le Monde, and CNN. |
Music I love: | Almost all classical music, especially music composed by Gershwin, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and John Williams (ET! Harry Potter! What's not to love?) |
Words to live by: | "Live simply so that others may simply live." |