Hello! My name is BI am a second-year law student (2L) at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Before law school, I earned my undergraduate degree in Marketing from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park.

 During my undergraduate studies, I volunteered with the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program for Prince George’s County, Maryland. I was assigned to advocate for an abused and neglected child who was in the foster care system. I checked in on the child weekly as they went through a challenging time. During this time, I helped them navigate through the transition into a new environment, which included adjusting to their foster home, separation from family, and coping with the effects of trauma. Fortunately, the foster mother adopted the child, yet I could not help but think about how they must have felt about their other siblings who were still in the system or were in the process of aging out. 

After graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic, I joined AmeriCorps. I served as a City Year member at an inner-city school in Washington, D.C. Many of our students experienced difficulties in addition to the virtual learning environment, which included distractions at home, lack of resources, and consistent absences. Eventually, these students would fall behind in class instruction and lose hope of catching up to the rest of their peers. To overcome this challenge, I started working with students individually and in small group sessions to help them complete their missing work. However, some students could not achieve their fullest potential due to reasons beyond their control. Both experiences helped me realize the role of systemic barriers and ultimately inspired me to pursue a legal career. I was moved to do more to challenge racial disparities that marginalize children and families in our community.

I was very excited to learn and apply to the University of Baltimore School of Law upon learning about the CFCC. Discovering more about the CFCC and its mission of advocating for the well-being of children and families in our communities was inspiring. As a student fellow at the CFCC, I look forward to advocating for systemic changes that affect children and their families in our community. I am eager to start volunteering this semester with CFCC’s Tackling Chronic Absenteeism Project (TCAP) to support local students in Baltimore. Although I do not have a job lined up yet for the summer, I hope to be in a role where I can continue to gain more legal experience in areas such as family law, juvenile justice, or immigration law. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with the CFCC as a student fellow to pursue my long-term goal of promoting fairness and equity for children and families.