Pro Bono Awards 2016
Presented at the UCI Law Pro Bono & Student Life Awards Celebration on April 13, 2016.
Community
These awards honor the pro bono supervisors and supporters, without whom the students could not do pro bono work.
- Community Pro Bono Advocate: Prof. Keramet Reiter, UC Irvine, for her leadership on the Clemency Project.
- Pro Bono Partner Award: Annee Della Donna, for her supervision of the Innocence Appeals Project and the Clemency Project.
Student Awards
The following students were recognized for going above and beyond in terms of pro bono.
- Pro Bono Independent Spirit Award
- Jordan Aiken, for creating and running the Transgender Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic
- Matt Bradbury, for leading the new Clemency Project at UCI Law
- Judy Chin, student leader for the Immigration Applications for Undocumented Student Travel Abroad
- Most Pro Bono Hours
- Cumulative: Elizabeth Tissot
- 3L: Kristen Burzynski, Judy Chin, Andrea Diaz, Anna Rea
- 2L: Divya Prabhakar
- 1L: Rochelle Rotea
- Pro Bono Leadership Award
- Jason Hartlage and Samantha Rodriguez—CARES
- Nick James and Lauren Mendehlson—Clean Slate Expungement Clinic
- Janet Hsu and Camille Nguyen—Disabled & Elderly Benefits (SSI)
- Stephanie Johnson—DV Declarations and Federal Public Defender’s Office
- Matthew Jacinto—DV Declarations
- Tilman Heyer and Jiaxiao Zhang—Education Rights Project
- Jamie Sutton—Elder Abuse Project
- Judy Chin—Immigration Applications for Undocumented Student Travel Abroad
- Melissa Bell—Innocence Project Collaboration
- Shireen Ashtari, Alexis Federico, Citlali Ochoa and Alex McIntosh—International Refugee Assistance Project
- Zoe McKinney—Permanency Project for Victims of Crime
- Simarpreet Ahluwalia, Priscilla Gutierrez, and Daniel Silverman—Saturday Academy of Law
- Andrenna Berggren and Kellye Ng-McCullough—Street Law
- Jordan Aiken—Transgender Name & Gender Marker Change Clinic
- Andrew Morrill—VA Benefits Project
- Nefi Acosta, Alex McIntosh and Matt Fritz-Mauer—Worker Education & Wage Theft Clinic
- Graduation Awards
- Pro Bono Honors (120 hours): Alisha Ansari; Jessica Brostek; Yashina Burns; Michelle Chung; Jeremy Cowan; Leigh Dickey; Tawny Do; Andres Gallegos; Nahal Hamidi; Ann Kam; Vinhcent Le; Stephanie Lind; Ramanda Luper; Jack Meaney; Katherine Neal; Kellye Ng-McCullough; Aglaia Ovtchinnikova; Ronald Park; Lauren Shelby; Nancy Sotomayor; Mark Stamper; Eric Vera; Jessica Youngsmith
- Pro Bono High Honors (200 hours): Nefi Acosta; Aaron Adams; Jean Ahn; Jordan Aiken; Ava Badiee; Melissa Bell; Jamila Benkato; Matthew Bradbury; Kristen Burzynski; Judy Chin; Samuel Cretcher; Emily Cross; Andrea Diaz; Natalie Diaz; Alexis Paschedag Federico; Nicholas James; Stephanie Johnson; Gillian Kuhlmann; Kevin Lerman; Zoe McKinney; Micah Morris; Sophia Nguyen; Citlalli Ochoa; Bree Oswald; Hayley Penan; Anna Rea; Samantha Rodriguez; Ariela Rutkin-Becker; Sheila Solaimani; Jamie Sutton; Elizabeth Tissot; Lauren Wong; Francis Yao
- Pro Bono 50 & 100 (Hour) Awards: These students far exceeded the recommended number of annual pro bono hours during the 2015–2016 academic year.
- 50 Hour Award (1L): Melissa Adams; Helen Boyer; Megan Brownlee; Zackory Burns; Benjamin Calleros; Amanda Cordova; Shirley Diaz; Lauren Ellis; Henry Farrington; Vanessa Gomez; Eric Halverson; Hannah Jeffrey; Sean Karol; Aileen Kim; Andrea Levenson; Kristi Lin; Mariah Lindsay; Sean Lobb; Emma McBurney; Samuel Sung Cheol Park; Rochelle Rotea; Stephen Suk; Christopher Valentino; Christine Wendel; Tiffany Yim
- 100 Hour Award (2L and 3L): Nefi Acosta; Jordan Aiken; Melissa Bell; Jessica Brostek; Kristen Burzynski; Karisa Chapa; Joy Chen; Judy Chin; Andani Diaz; Andrea Diaz; Natalie Diaz; Justin Hanassab; Jason Hartlage; Julie Hartle; Stephanie Johnson; Jennifer Kim; Alexandra McIntosh; Andrew Morrill; Kellye Ng-McCullough; Sophia Nguyen; Evan Ponec; Divya Prabhakar; Anna Rea; Samantha Rodriguez; Sheila Solaimani; Jamie Sutton; Lauren Wong; Jiaxiao Zhang; Enid Zhou
- Achievement Award Winners: The Pro Bono Achievement Awards recognize all students who met the recommended number of pro bono hours (50 hours for 2Ls and 3Ls; 20 hours for 1Ls) during the 2015–2016 academic year.
- Class of 2018: Johnanthony Alaimo; Alina Ananian; Ivette Aragon; Allen Babajanian; Jacob Berezin; Sarah Boxer; Calvin Bryne; James G. Byrd; Raymond Cho; Sarah Choi; Negah Mouzoon Daily; Dallas Diogostine; Abigail Formella; Elliot Gurnick; Andre Harmandjian; Michael Hefty; The-An Hoang-Nguyen; Danielle Humphrey; Matthew Jacinto; Suchi Jaitly; Loni Kaye; Anika Khan; Ashford Kneitel; Tryphena Liu; Karina Lo; Brennan Lowe; Lauren Lystrup; Hannah McMeans; Constance Moorhead; Christopher Nielsen; Danielle Nygren; Joseph O’Brian; Kyle Olandria; Maria Peltekova; Bao Pham; Stephanie Phan; Robert Pierce; Judith Ramos; Rachel Rice; Nikita Salehi; Jonathan Santiago; Ahmad Takouche; Shunya Wade; Daniel Werner; Julia Wu; Lauren Yun
- Class of 2017: Alexandra Achamallah; Shireen Ashtari; Sara Banco; Mariam Bicknell; Alison Chabot; Katherine Ells; Christine Wenqi Fan; Chrisdo Wenyue Fan; Eric Fanchiang; Olivia Goetsch; Robin Gray; Jonathan Healy; Janet Hsu; Rik Jeffery; Anjana Joshi; Amy Lieberman; Justin Martin; Boanerges Rodriguez Orellana; Erica Row; Christopher Young Seah; Richard Szuba; Alan Talt; Honieh Udenka; Oliva Weber; Alexander Zeng
- Class of 2016: Aaron Adams; Jean Ahn; Jamila Benkato; Samuel Cretcher; Emily Cross; Alexis Paschedag Federico; Nicolas James; Stephanie Lind; Lawrence Liu; Ramanda Luper; Zoe McKinney; Lauren Mendelsohn; Micah Morris; Camille Nguyen; Hayley Penan; Ariela Rutkin-Becker; Francis Yao; Jessica Youngsmith