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From the Foundation
Two Scholarships Help Fund the Education of Future Lawyers
By Cathy Barrie
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Cathy Barrie is the manager of Foundation and Outreach for the FBA. She handles daily operations of the Foundation and coordinates outreach efforts for the association, including the Civics Essay Contest and national awards. She was previously managing editor of The Federal Lawyer from 1997 to 2004. The Foundation awarded scholarships to two talented law students early this year, including the new Dr. J. Clay Smith Jr. Diversity in the Legal Profession Scholarship. We are pleased to continue to provide our future lawyers much-needed educational funds in times of uncertainty.
The Dr. J. Clay Smith Jr. Diversity in the Legal Profession Scholarship aims to promote diversity and encourage racial and ethnic minority students to pursue a legal education and complete law school by awarding a $15,000 scholarship to a first-year law student. The inaugural recipient is Maryam Asenuga, a first-year law student at Columbia Law School in New York.
Maryam graduated with honors from Duke University in North Carolina. While working on her undergraduate degree, she was active both on and off campus advocating for the poor, disenfranchised, and vulnerable. She worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., was an equity and outreach senator for the Duke Student Government, served as a student liaison to the Duke President’s Council on Black Affairs, and volunteered with the Mastery Refugee Mentorship Program and Urban Ministries of Durham.
In a glowing recommendation, Timothy B. Tyson of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University writes the following of Maryam:
I would rank her overall ability in the highest double handful of students I have taught in 27 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Duke University, easily the top five percent, if not higher. Her work habits are energetic and meticulous. She writes with a lean, often elegant clarity. All the time that I have known her, she has been focused on becoming an advocate for the most vulnerable among us, and she has proven herself. I recommend her with complete confidence and genuine enthusiasm.
The Foundation also awards $5,000 to an FBA law student associate member attending an ABA accredited law school. The 2021 Robert A. McNew Law Student Scholarship was awarded to Glenda Wright, a second-year law student at the Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law in Highland Heights, Ky.
Glenda received her undergraduate degree from Murray State University in Kentucky. Prior to entering law school, she was an intern and later executive secretary with the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services in Frankfort. Glenda also interned with the Governor’s Office (Frankfort) and Pro Seniors in Cincinnati, and she is a current Diversity in Leadership Fellow with the Law and Leadership Institute.
In law school, Glenda has been active with a number of organizations, including the Student Bar Association, the Black Law Student Association, the Legal Association of Women, and Phi Alpha Delta. She was a 2020 scholar of the W. Bruce Lunsford Academy for Law, Business + Technology Honors Program. Glenda serves as associate editor of the Northern Kentucky Law Review and as vice president of the law school’s student chapter of the FBA.
The review committee judges were particularly impressed with Glenda’s personal essay. She wrote about her difficult childhood with three siblings and a single mother who suffered from mental health issues and substance abuse.
Glenda found herself part of “the system,” dealing with social workers, lawyers, judges, and foster parents— many of whom remained nameless to her— who made decisions for her and her siblings “in our best interest.” But, she writes, she survived hunger, homelessness, and neglect and is now a champion and advocate for kids growing up like she did.
We wish Maryam and Glenda much success as they pursue their legal education and careers. The 2021 application deadline for the Dr. J. Clay Smith Jr. Diversity in the Legal Profession Scholarship and the Bob A. McNew Law Student Scholarship is Oct. 15, 2021. Visit the Foundation website at https:// www.fedbar.org/about-us/affiliated-organizations/ foundation-of-the-federal-bar-association/ for details.
