Where do you see yourself 10 years from now and how will your education have helped get you there? by Ivonne

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now and how will your education have helped get you there? by Ivonne - June 2023 Scholarship Essay

In 2013, I became a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that would allow certain eligible individuals to receive work authorization and temporary protection from deportation. That day, I told myself I would use this gift to obtain an excellent education and serve my community with the utmost empathy and care.

Over the last ten years, working as an Immigration Paralegal, I have cultivated a vast understanding of U.S. immigration and nationality law and am eager to begin putting it to use. My own experiences with this country’s tangled immigration system make me uniquely empathetic to the pervasive struggles of countless immigrants across this country. I have many dreams and goals to accomplish within the next decade. I see ahead a panoramic picture for myself and my professional career such as providing pro-bono representation to detained children and adults and need based clients. I am confident that I will be a diligent and ethical lawyer who will help hundreds of individuals in different processes including but not limited to non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas and deportation representation. Furthermore, I will be a recognized Lawyer due to my skills, knowledge, thoroughness, and caring representation in every case, becoming the chairman for the New Jersey Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the New Jersey Bar Immigration Law Section. Additionally, I want to be an officer of the court who makes a change in the lives of individuals and families.

I am certain that obtaining a JD degree and becoming a lawyer will give me the opportunity to be active in every step of clients’ immigration processes. Through the courses, clinics, practice, and experience, I will become a well-prepared lawyer. I will be providing incisive legal advice at consultations, conducting thorough research to support novel legal arguments, and fiercely advocating for relief at merits hearings. The education and experience will prepare for reality and worst-case scenarios in which I am able to provide diligent representation.

I will work tirelessly to excel as a law student and become an exemplary attorney upon graduation, working every day to achieve both my own American Dream and that of many other hopeful and deserving immigrants.