1L Anna Sanchez named 2016 Diversity Scholar by the California Bar Foundation
September 27, 2016 -- Anna Sanchez (Class of 2019) has been named one of 31 California Bar Foundation Diversity Scholars. On being selected for this scholarship, Sanchez remarked:
"I was very excited to receive this scholarship. I come from a low-income family. I am a first-generation American and the first one in my family to go to college. Not only did this scholarship allow me to reduce my loan amount, it helped me pay for my living expenses. I have a seven-year-old child and a partner who moved with me, therefore I have a higher cost of living than the typical law student. This scholarship makes it possible for people like me to attend law school. The high cost of getting a legal education deters many from attending law school, especially low-income people of color. Also, this scholarship provides network opportunities for recipients. Every recipient is sponsored by a firm or corporation. Since I was sponsored by the Walt Disney Corporation, I was able to network with their in-house legal counsel. I got business cards and was exposed to the many areas of law I can practice. This network component is extremely beneficial for first-generation law students like me since we were not exposed to the legal field early on in our lives. Lastly, I hope that future Pepperdine law students apply. I was the only Pepperdine law student recipient this year."
From The California Bar Foundation website:
The California Bar Foundation's 1L Diversity Scholarship supports diverse California 1Ls who will one day be leaders of our profession. Diversity includes a broad array of backgrounds and life experiences, including students from groups or with skills or attributes that are underrepresented in the legal profession, and specifically including students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Through our 1L Diversity Scholarship, each Fall the Foundation awards a $7,500 scholarship to diverse law students throughout the state to help defray the costs of their 1L year.