student spotlight
at the new jersey institute for social justice NJISJ intern Jewel McGowan Watson, Gregg Stankewicz ’10, Trisha Trigilio ’10, Jarrod Loadholt ’10, NJISJ Legal and Policy Counsel Laurel Dumont, Mayor Cory Booker, Angela Gius ’10, Daniel Meyler ’09, Molly Tack ’09 and NJISJ Senior Counsel and Policy Director Craig Levine ’91. at newark city council chambers Gius, Tack, Meyler, Trigilio (seated), Loadholt, Stankewicz.
Spring Break Across the Hudson River One student finds inspiration and encouragement when she volunteers to provide legal services for a week to needy and neglected residents of embattled Newark, New Jersey. aking your way into the project, he learned from his neighbors World Trade Center PATH sta- to see beneath the troubled surface of tion at 8:30 on Monday morning the world around him. Tears streamed is like being a lone salmon swim- down my face. He impressed upon me the ming upstream to spawn. One escalator at impact my classmates and I could make the station descends to the trains headed just by the way in which we live our lives. to Jersey, while seven ascend from the plat- “Stand tall,” he said. forms, carrying Newark residents from their Less than a year later, I was standing affordable housing to their jobs in lower before the mayor with my fellow spring Manhattan. Even though lower Manhattan breakers at a meeting arranged by NJISJ. is in many ways still reeling from the dev- Booker was every bit as inspiring in the astation of 9/11, the economic opportunities intimate meeting as he had been on the it offers to the people of Newark sparkle stage of Madison Square Garden. He asked in comparison to the prospects available each of us in turn about our backgrounds, at home, a once-thriving center of indus- interests and ambitions, engaging us on try where, today, the city government is topics ranging from high school nicknames Newark’s largest employer. to same-sex marriage. Although Newark Along with five other NYU Law students, is the largest city in New Jersey, Newark’s I made this counterintuitive commute daily public interest lawyers and community for a week in March to the New Jersey Insti- organizers emphasize how small and closetute for Social Justice (NJISJ) as part of the knit their community feels to them. Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program of During the week, the six ASB interns Law Students for Human Rights (LSHR)—a took turns working on behalf of Reentry week of working, observing and learning. Legal Services, one of NJISJ’s partners, Last spring, when the Public Interest calling ex-offenders to offer legal services. Law Center first urged LSHR to consider I spent hours on the phone on behalf of Newark, I thought we might have trouble one man, recently released from prison, selling the city as an appealing spring who suffered from short-term memory break destination, even to the most public loss and cognition difficulties, helping him interest-minded law students—and then, to navigate an expansive array of entities in May, I saw Cory Booker speak at NYU comprising the Motor Vehicles ComLaw’s convocation. mission and several municipal courts Booker related to the Class of 2007 whose approval he needed to get his how, as a young Yale Law graduate living driver’s license restored. This was necesin a violence-plagued Newark housing sary for him to be eligible for most of the
students at court: Matt Klapper; Students with Corey Booker: Sharon Macklin
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employment that was available to ex-offenders. Other students drafted petitions to expunge stale criminal records, including a petition on behalf of a 40-year-old client who had just been denied a job promotion because of a conviction for shoplifting when she was 17. Our work with NJISJ also touched on New Jersey handgun regulation, an integral part of Booker’s public safety platform, as well as collateral damage from aggressive law enforcement policies, such as a “juvenile waiver” rule that meant that young defendants accused of certain crimes were automatically tried as adults. Our accomplishments were modest, but had an impact nonetheless. For me, the week was an opportunity to take a step back from school and draw encouragement from the inspiring people around me—from the Newarkers overcoming major obstacles every day just to survive to the attorneys advocating for the city and still making time to embrace us visitors with open arms, to our site leader, Dan Meyler ’09, who spent months learning about Newark, attending conferences, and making connections in order to present us with the array of hands-on opportunities that we enjoyed. I got to remove my law school blinders and see a troubled New Jersey city as something else—a testament to America’s urban plight, but also to its enduring spirit of revitalization, just five miles from Manhattan. Molly Tack ’09 AUTUMN 2008
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