Laurah Bernard
Growing up, my career goals were always focused on public service. During my undergraduate studies at Mercy College, I jumped from major to major trying to find the tool I could use to help my community. It was not until my senior year interning with the District Attorney’s Office in Yonkers, N.Y., that I realized I could commit to a career in law. One attorney I shadowed treated every victim as an opportunity to bring them a voice. This was the most impactful community service I had witnessed and I knew this was my desired future. After graduation, I returned home to Seattle. Although inspired by the court system, I did see inequalities in prosecution rates. I wanted to use my time after graduation for public service and serve the families of the prosecuted. I spent the next year in AmeriCorps VISTA, working with the Children of Incarcerated Parents Program. I visited the majority of prisons in Western Washington and became close to the families and offenders. I realized that there were more victims outside of those represented in the courts. I spent another term with AmeriCorps, working as a reading coach with Seattle Public Schools. In many ways the inequalities I saw in the court room were not far from those in a first grade classroom. This time, it was children who were being influenced, which only fueled my fire to make a difference. Becoming a Thomas More Scholar is an honor that has made these goals attainable.
Michele Fukawa
I applied to Gonzaga Law School because of its strong public interest law program and emphasis on social justice. And as an older student returning to school, I was thrilled just to be admitted. Receiving a Thomas More Scholarship was an unexpected and extremely humbling honor, and I hope to use my law education to pursue my interests in disability law and labor law. Since graduating from Reed College in 1999 with a BA in psychology, I have worked with homeless men in a shelter, determined eligibility for Medicaid and Food Stamps for the elderly and disabled, and helped abused and neglected children as a Child Protective Services worker in both Oregon and Washington. My exposure to disability rights has been in the context of helping my clients. I have carried specialized caseloads of mentally ill and/or developmentally delayed children in foster care, sought supportive housing for homeless and mentally ill adults, and utilized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to advocate for the educational rights of disabled children. Witnessing how the disabled – and specifically the mentally ill – are ignored by society and government agencies has frustrated me numerous times over the past 11 years, and it has led me to this path of becoming a more effective advocate. Protecting workers’ rights has also been an interest of mine and I became involved with the union as a State of Washington employee. In 2008, I became an AFSCME
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