2019 Postgraduate Fellowships

Experience: FSG Social Impact Advisors, senior strategy consultant; Columbia Law Review, articles editor; chambers of New Jersey State Supreme Court Justice Barry T. Albin, intern; Brennan Center for Justice, intern; The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), extern;                                                    

Motivation: “During my externship with CPD, I worked with Local Progress—a national network of progressive elected officials in county, municipal, and other local governments—to write a model bill to automatically register people to vote when they interacted with municipal agencies, as well as an accompanying tool kit to help elected officials understand the bill and explain it to their constituents. We also drafted a bill and toolkit to automatically register high school students to vote. The results have been incredible. Local Progress members have already introduced the model bills in cities and towns across the country. All this was accomplished with me working only one day a week for 10 weeks.”

Goals: “Working with CPD and Local Progress full time for a year or two, I can potentially write dozens of bills that could be passed in hundreds of localities around the country. I will work collaboratively with local elected officials and Local Progress staff to draft innovative model legislation that will increase voting rights and voter participation in their communities. By using a proven solution—drafting model legislation—at the local level, where few others are working, I hope to bring about many small changes that will have a big impact.”     

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The office of Social Justice Initiatives (SJI) guides Columbia Law School students who want to pursue public interest work throughout their academic careers and after graduation. SJI also assists in the process of applying to prestigious postgraduate fellowships. Read about the other 2019 public interest postgraduate fellows.  

Published on March 18, 2019