Community college students in California now have easier access to admission at law schools, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Beginning today, six law schools and their undergraduate campuses are partnering with 24 community colleges in an effort to offer counseling for students who have an interest in legal careers. The partnership will provide advice, mentoring, tutoring, networking and access to faculty members at the law schools.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Adrien Abuyen, 20, a student at College of Alameda. “This is a door opening that would not have opened otherwise.”
The plan is being sponsored by the State Bar of California’s Council on Access & Fairness.
“We’ll create a person at the law school who is a champion of this pipeline program,” Kevin R. Johnson said. Johnson is the dean at the UC Davis School of Law. “We’ll bring community college students to the law school and expose them to a legal education. We’ll do our very best to work with students to make sure they get the information they need to come to law school.”
Johnson spoke about using this partnership to diversify the enrollment of law schools in the state.
“Our goal would also be to make it easier for socioeconomically disadvantaged students to enroll,” Johnson said. “I see this as a public duty.”
A spokesperson for California Community Colleges, Paul Feist, said, “We want students to identify their educational goals early in their college career, because the research says that those students are usually more successful. It doesn’t mean they can’t change their mind.”
The community colleges taking part include Alameda, Chabot College, Contra Costa College, Merritt College, Solano Community College and San Jose City College. There are a total of 24 colleges taking part.
The law schools taking part in the plan include UC Davis, UC Irvine, University of San Francisco School of Law, Loyola Law School, Santa Clara University School of Law and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
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