Satre Family Public Interest Fellowships Fund Student Dreams
Tanairi Alcaraz ’18 had a clear idea of the kind of work she wanted to do during the summer following her first year at King Hall. The question was: how to pay for it?
“For me, the motivation for going to law school has always been very personal,” said Alcaraz. As a first-generation college student and the daughter of immigrants, she is driven by a desire to return to, and serve, the Stockton community where she grew up. “That is still my community, and that’s what it’s always been about for me.”
But Alcaraz knew that the nonprofits that serve migrant communities typically can’t afford to pay summer interns. “I was talking to my parents about how they might have to loan me some money, so I was grateful and relieved to be able to get funding through the fellowship.”
Thanks to the generous support of Phil Satre ’75 and his family, Alcaraz and 10 other King Hall students were able to pursue public interest law internships during the summer of 2016 with funding from Satre Family Public Interest Fellowships.
Alcaraz worked with Migrant Unit in the Stockton office of California Rural Legal Assistance, with duties that included preparing a motion for a high-profile sexual harassment suit brought by fieldworkers against a labor contractor—a long-running case that CRLA won while Alcaraz was working with them.
“It was a great reminder of how important this kind of work can be, and I feel privileged to have had this opportunity,” said Alcaraz.
Other students receiving Satre Family Public Interest Fellowships during 2016 include Robin Cheng ’17 (who worked with the Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts), Omar de la Cruz ’18 (Public Advocates, San Francisco), Kyle Edgerton ’18 (OneJustice, San Francisco), Hope Kwiatkowski ’17 (Center for Justice & Accountability, San Francisco), Ashley Riser ’17 (Sacramento County Public Defender), Holly Snead ’17 (Innocence Project of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida), Danielle Stewart ’18 (Inner City Law Center, Los Angeles), Masao Taylor ’17 (Asian Law Caucus, San Francisco), Sadie Weller ’17 (Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, Oakland), and Nicole Zanardi ’17 (Alameda County Public Defender’s Office).
“It was amazing, the best experience I’ve had in law school so far,” Holly Snead said of her internship with the Innocence Project of Florida. She reviewed case files and made recommendations as to which ones the Innocence Project should pursue, and wrote post-conviction motions, often requesting DNA testing that was not done at the time of the trial.
“I came to law school not really knowing what kind of work I wanted to do, except that I wanted something in public interest,” Snead said. “After this summer, I really want to do post-conviction work. It’s just phenomenal what they do at the Innocence Project, and there are so many cases out there where people need help.”
“For students who want to do public interest law, one of the challenges is that the organizations you want to work with have limited resources, so they don’t have the ability to hire like the law firms do,” Snead said. “Having these fellowships is what gives us the opportunity to work with these nonprofits. The fellowships have a huge impact on the organizations, their clients, and the students. It definitely had an enormous impact on me.”
Masao Taylor was equally grateful for his fellowship, which made it possible for him to work with the Asian Law Caucus Immigrant Rights Program, visiting detention centers in Elk Grove and Yuba City, conducting naturalization clinics, and providing legal services for those who otherwise couldn’t afford representation.
“The Satre fellowship made it possible for me to do this work,” said Taylor, who plans to practice immigration law after graduation. “As a law student, you’re already in debt. The organizations that do this kind of work are nonprofits, and they can’t afford to pay their summer interns salaries. This fellowship is what made it possible for me to do the work that I am passionate about doing.”