Davis Enterprise Highlights KHOP Program
The King Hall Outreach Program (KHOP) was featured in a front-page story in the Sunday, August 9, edition of The Davis Enterprise. Dean Kevin R. Johnson, Associate Director of Admissions and Outreach Cristina Gapasin, Alice Cheng '10, and Judge Kathleen Butz '81 of the California Third District Court of Appeal were among those commenting on the program for the article, which includes profiles of KHOP participants Felipe Garcia, Kristy Phillips, and Sara Kohgadai.
The article offers an overview of KHOP, UC Davis School of Law's intensive law school preparation program designed to help students who are typically either "first generation" college students or members of traditionally underrepresented groups to prepare for law school and navigate the admissions process. Much of the article's focus is on the students' participation in moot court oral arguments before the California Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento, which was depicted in four accompanying photographs.
Though the moot court experience was somewhat nerve-racking for some KHOP participants, many of whom had never set foot in a courtroom before, the students performed admirably. Judge Butz, who oversaw the proceedings with two of her colleagues, commented that "if the students attended one of the Court's monthly oral argument calendars, they would realize just how well they did."
The article mentioned KHOP's success in placing 33 of its 176 graduates in law school programs and another 11 in graduate schools. It also included praise for the Law School's efforts in working toward more diversity in the legal profession through efforts such as KHOP, the only program of its kind at any University of California law school.
"Diversity in the legal profession, beginning in law school, is critical for the exposure it provides to cultural sensitivities," said Judge Butz. "And the rule of law is strengthened when our lawyers and judges reflect our ethnically and culturally diverse population."
KHOP, Dean Johnson said, "is precisely the kind of program President Obama has endorsed: it offers a ‘hand up,' not a ‘hand out.' It is also exactly the kind of program we all should want and expect at a public law school."