King Hall Welcomes 2015 KHOP Students

UC Davis School of Law welcomed 17 students to the 2015 summer session of the King Hall Outreach Program. The students participated in a series of intensive law school preparation courses held between July 11 and August 8. Highlights of this year's program included a keynote speech from Errol Dauis, former President of the Board of Directors, Centro Legal de la Raza, a lunch at the offices of Downey Brand in Sacramento, and a KHOP alumni panel featuring Natalie James '13, Stephanie Padilla '16, and Paolo Hermoso '18.

Established in 2001, KHOP is a unique program that helps first-generation college students and economically disadvantaged students prepare for the law school admissions process. KHOP was selected by the State Bar of California to receive the 2014 State Bar Education Pipeline Award, which recognizes outstanding efforts of legal education programs that train and support students to become interested in the judicial system and careers in law.

This year's KHOP participants included students from UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Barbara, as well as San Francisco State University; San Jose State University, CSU, Sacramento; and CSU, East Bay. They are a diverse group with a wide range of interests, including immigration law, intellectual property, family law, domestic violence prevention, community development, and more.  For the first time, the program includes college graduates.

Program participants included:

• David Latt: A senior at UC Berkeley, he is founder and co-president of the Pre-Law Coalition for Social Justice and a member of the Vice Chancellor's Student Advisory Council. His interest in international relations, public policy, civil rights, human rights, and social justice was sparked by first-hand experience of political oppression while growing up in Burma. He has plans to pursue a joint degree in public policy and law.
• Ricardo Martinez: A Political Science major at UC Davis, he is the first in his family to pursue higher education. He is interested in becoming a lawyer so that he can advocate on behalf of marginalized communities and has plans to create a public service organization that will influence public policy and provide assistance to those in need.
• Zuleima Flores-Abid: A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Political Science, she is a former External Affairs Chair for Legal Education Association for Diversity (LEAD) and a former mentor for Freedom4Youth at Los Prietos Boys Camp. She plans to use her legal education in part to explore ways to promote rehabilitation and reentry programs for prison inmates and parolees.