ALA would like to express its sincerest gratitude to the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley (APABA-SV) and the Minami Tamaki Yamauchi Kwok and Lee (MTYKL) Foundation for its sponsorship of ALA’s 2016 summer intern and post-bar law graduate fellow. With their generous support, ALA is able to truly live up to its reputation as a community law firm and be a teaching institution for law students, attorneys, and other members of the community.
Throughout the years, APABA-SV has continually supported law students and law graduates through their sponsorship of both summer and fall interns at ALA. Through APABA-SV’s kindness, law students and recent graduates with a demonstrated commitment to public interest work and serving underrepresented communities have the opportunity to work fully-paid for ten weeks.
This year, ALA’s summer intern is Michelle Kim. Michelle Kim is a rising 2L at UC Berkeley School of Law. In 2014, Michelle graduated from UC Irvine with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology. During her first year of law school, Michelle participated in the California Asylum Representation Clinic in Berkeley, California. In the future, she hopes to continue to help underserved communities.
ALA was fortunate enough to be one of the ten nonprofit organizations selected to receive $10,000 from MTYKL’s Immigrant Rights Initiative. Founded in 2014, the Initiative aimed to support immigrant rights and to continue the struggle for immigrant justice. The Initiative understands the urgent need for unification, particularly in this heated political culture where anti-immigrant rhetoric is becoming the dangerous norm.
ALA decided to use the grant to fund the work of a law graduate fellow for four months. The fellow would work to increase outreach, education, and legal assistance in the community through both its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Project and its Citizenship/Civic Engagement Project.
This year’s MTYKL Spring 2016 fellow is Ms. Mimi Nguyen. Mimi is a San Jose native, born and raised. She obtained her Bachelors degree from UC Davis and would go on to obtain her law degree from Golden Gate School of Law. During law school, she built up her experience in civil litigation by clerking at GAP, Inc. and continued such work after law school at a private firm.
Before her Spring fellowship, Mimi was actually no stranger to ALA. Starting in 2012, Mimi volunteered with ALA at our monthly clinics and citizenship workshops. However, it was not until 2016 would she formally become a part of ALA’s staff. Provided that her return to ALA coincides with her return to San Jose, she remarks that, “it has been a blessing to be able to come back to my hometown and to give back to my community in this way. I consider myself lucky to be here, and not the other way around.” Mimi hopes to continue her legal career in public interest law.