La Alianza offers support to Latinx pre-law students

Group members discuss programming plans, importance of representation

BY SOFIA BARNETT AND ANIYAH NELSON UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR AND SENIOR STAFF WRITER

La Alianza, the University’s first pre-law society dedicated to Latinx students, was founded by Alexandra Ali Martinez ’22 just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But when the pandemic scattered students across the globe, Martinez was unable to bring the organization to full fruition.

After months of conversing and strategizing with Martinez, Fabian Antunez Lopez ’25 — current president of La Alianza — grew determined to get the organization up and running. “It was a crazy opportunity, and I was really honored to just take her brainchild and make it my own as well,” he said.

Though La Alianza has only had two general body meetings so far this semester, the organization has many programming plans in the works.

According to Michelle Alas ’25, a general body member, La Alianza intends to coordinate trips to law schools in the region, collaborate with other University pre-law organizations and offer LSAT support, among other initiatives.

La Alianza is focused on “finding out what types of resources Brown offers … and providing students with resources and information that would have been probably pretty inaccessible otherwise,” Alas said. “It’s been a great experience so far.”

The organization is also planning on inviting alums who are currently in law school or pursuing careers within the industry to speak to La Alianza members about their legal journeys, Antunez Lopez said.

“It’s different when you can have these people come and talk about their experiences. They’re more like our peers and people that we can trust who went to Brown and went through the system themselves,” he said.

For Alas, these networking oppor-

SEE ALIANZA PAGE 5

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Sunrise Brown’s DIRE campaign calls for the University to cut all financial and social ties to the fossil fuel industry by refusing research funding, grants and gifts from related organizations, creating a fossil fuel-free retirement fund option for faculty and banning fossil fuel companies from hosting recruitment events on campus, Ethan Drake ’24, one of the Dissociate Now report’s

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