A major role of the Association is awarding one or more scholarships to second year law students each year. The winners must demonstrate aptitude, achievement, public service, financial need, and commitment to the study of law and the legal profession. The students are chosen from law schools on a rotation of geographical areas around the United States.

Scholarship Recipients Honored at the 2022 Award Dinner:

Gloria is 3rd in her class of 118 at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Before law school she was a social worker, and in law school she put her expertise to work in the Child and Family
Law Clinic, where she represents children in juvenile court proceedings and advocates their interests in Department of Child Safety meetings. She is also the recipient of the Jacqueline Anne Morris Fellowship where she will participate as a senior member of the Clinic and conduct research relating to juvenile law. She is on the Arizona Law Review and active in the Environmental Law Society and in the Law Women’s Association. She was chosen by three of her first-year professors to serve as a Fellow this year. Gloria intends to build a career in family and juvenile law and has financial needs in finishing law school. The ACA scholarship will help her achieve her laudable goals.

Morenike is the first winner of the Pamela Bresnahan Scholarship, to be awarded to a second-year student at a law school in the District of Columbia area who is a leader in the rights of women. Morenike is a rising 3L at The George Washington University Law School. She is an English-born, first-generation, Nigerian-American who came to law school with a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. While there she conducted research to develop a racism index of structural inequality in laws that predicted disparate health outcomes. At law school, she is a member of the George Washington Law Review and the incoming Senior Project Editor, the Attorney General for the Student Bar Association, President of the African Law Association, and a Dean’s Fellow, for which she teaches first-year students legal writing. She has focused on data privacy and technology law out of a passion for the modern way minorities and especially women are harmed online, and hopes to have a career focusing on the needs of minorities and members of marginalized communities in the age of technology. The Bresnahan scholarship will assist her in meeting her laudable goals.

Alex excelled in the Introduction to Criminal Procedure course and earned one of the top two grades in the class (out of a class of 50 students). In fact, his exam was so outstanding that it was used as the model answer for the entire class. In his first semester at UW Law School (after transferring from the Georgia State University College Law), he already demonstrated remarkable academic aptitude. Alex’s exceptional performance in the Introduction to Criminal Procedure class is a strong sign that he will go on to an outstanding career as a public defender. The depth of his commitment to public interest work after graduation shows his commitment to pursuing a career as a public defender. During his 1L summer, he pursued this goal through an internship at the Federal Defender Program in Atlanta; last summer, he worked at a public defender’s office in New York City. Alex graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School in May 2022. He is a trial attorney at the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s office.

The scholarships, all of which the Association attempts to maintain in the amount of at least $5,000, are presented to the winners at the Annual Meeting in August.