2012 BLSPI FELLOWS

• Sarah Arena
• Yekaterina Blinova
• Mary Burch
• Erin Covert
• Christopher Dey
• Kenya Dillon
• David Goldberg
• Steven Hasty
• Adam Horowitz
• Jana Hymowitz
• Veronica Jackson
• Gillian Kozinski
• Beile Lindner
• Lisa Okamoto
• Jessica Peck
• Taier Perlman
• Nura Skaden
• Mia Tomijima
• Homer Turgeon
• Lee Wellington

Below are a few announcements for the upcoming week related to BLSPI initiatives:

Dearest BLS Community -

Starting TODAY (01/30) through Friday, February 10th, BLSPI and OUTLaws are co-sponsoring a winter clothing drive for the Hetrick-Martin Institute (http://www.hmi.org/).  HMI is an incredible organization that provides a host of services to LGBTQ youth.  One such program, their clothing pantry, provides free materials to youth who are homeless or in foster care.  We would love to have your support for this project!  Here is what we’re collecting:

*clean, slightly used clothing
*scarves, hats and gloves
*shoes (excellent condition only)
*business professional clothing - HMI places many youth in internships and jobs
Drop-off boxes are located in the student lounge, cafeteria entrance and Feil Hall.  If you have numerous bags and wish to arrange a pick-up of your items, kindly let me know and I’ll make arrangements.  You can also bring them to the next OUTLaws general body meeting on Thursday, February 2nd in Room 605.

Finally, if anybody is interested in assisting with bringing the items to HMI, I plan to do so on Friday afternoon (02/03 & 02/10).  Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Best,
Kathryn

The minutes from our meeting last week were sent to everyone on the listserv. It has a nice breakdown of everything we talked about. But, we want to highlight a few important points, just in case you missed them.

1. New Co-Chair: Matthew Allee
We had an election for a new Co-Chair today, and Matt Allee was the winner. Matt is a 2011 BLSPI Fellow and has previously served as BLSPI’s Secretary. He will be replacing our longtime dear friend and colleague, Meredith Symonds But don’t worry, Meredith will continue to have a big role in BLSPI for the rest of the year as an honorary Co-Chair Emeritus.

2. Board of Directors Update
We continue to make progress in setting up our new Board of Directors. Today, five dedicated BLSPI alums were officially nominated to a transitional Alumni Advisory Board, which will grow into a formal Board of Directors over the course of the next few months. You can check out our last listserv email to learn a little bit more about each of them.

3. Important Upcoming Meetings and Events

• The Community Development Committee will meet Tuesday, January 31 at 1pm in Room 600 to talk about our Annual Race and the Law Week, our March Madness Charity Pool, and our upcoming BLSPI Day of Service. Email community@blspi.org for more information.
• The Auction Committee will have a meeting on Thursday, January 26th at 1pm in Room 605 to discuss preparations for our most important event of the year! Email auction@blspi.org for more information or to get involved.
• We will be having a PILC Fair Prep event on January 31 at 5pm in the Student Lounge:Come join BLSPI Mentorship for a whirlwind pre-PILC Fair event! Learn about what to expect at the PILC fair in general, and hear from upperclass students what to expect from interviews at various organizations. There will be dinner!
• Unemployment Action Center Training – UAC will be holding a training on January 29 @ 11AM in Room 605. Email noor.alam@brooklaw.edu for more information.
• BLSPI & OUTLaws are sponsoring a Winter Clothing Drive to benefit the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI). Email kathryn.hensley@brooklaw.edu for more information.

4. Opportunities to Get Involved with BLSPI
We need a new Secretary and an Assistant Webmaster. If you’re interested or know someone else who may be, contact us at cochairs@blspi.org.

Thanks and we look forward to working with all of you as we put together another great semester of BLSPI programming.

Best,
Mike & Matt

Additionally, the BLSPI fellowship is about fostering a strong community within the public interest community at BLS. In this vein we ask that applicants have been involved in BLSPI prior to the application beyond just attending general body meetings (although that doesn’t mean you have to be an e-board or committee member, we just like to see applicants who have volunteered at least once to help out with a BLSPI initiative.)

Once selected, fellows are expected to contribute 30 hours of service back to BLSPI. Five of those hours are required prior to the summer internship, with the remainder to be completed by the end of the next year. During the summer and at least once a semester, fellows have the opportunity to come together with new and old fellows for happy hours, internship debriefs, and other events of interest.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

• Fill out the form below to begin the application process. We will send you an email with your unique application number and instructions on how to download the application.
• Place your application number at the top of each page of your application. DO NOT PUT ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ON THE APPLICATION (i.e., NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, EMAIL, ETC.).
• Number each page.
• Please limit your total word count to 1,000 words. How much you write per question is up to you.
• Paste your resume into the same file as your Fellowship Application. BE SURE TO REMOVE ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION FROM YOUR RESUME.
• When the application is complete, please save it as a PDF and upload it onto our website between January 17th and January 23rd.
• Contact webmaster@blspi.org with any questions about how to access the application or any technical difficulties.

APPLICATION TIMELINE

Spring Semester Begins: Monday, January 9th
Fellowship Information Session: Thursday, January 12th
Application Due Date: Monday January 23rd
Finalist Interviews: Saturday February 4th and Sunday February 5th
Decisions: To be made before the NYU PILC Fair (February 9th & 10th)

If you have any questions about the application process or the fellowship itself please email fellowships@blspi.org.

Practicing animal law for the last 30 years, Professor Wise has worked on some of the most ambitious and influential cases in his field, and has served as a pioneer of the legal and scientific arguments for animal rights. He is the former president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and current president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, where, through its Nonhuman Rights Project, he seeks to establish standing rights for nonhuman primates in civil court. He has taught at a number of law schools, including Harvard, Vermont, Lewis & Clark, and John Marshall, and has written four influential books, including “Rattling the Cage – Toward Legal Rights for Animals” (2000).

Fri, 11/11/11, 6:30 – 8:30 P.M., Subotnick Center. RSVP here.

Flyer: BLSPI Halloween Candy Drive! (PDF)

We’re very excited to get underway with several service day opportunities, but want to get a clearer sense of what people are interested in, and when you all think would be the best time to spend a few hours away from school doing good work in the community.

Please respond to this poll: https://docs.google.com/a/blspi.org/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dExVOUNBdHBzNEFmOVVFVWRsZUozN2c6MQ

Individual Mentoring and Tutoring Opportunities with Publicolor

Many of our BLSPI members have expressed interest in being involved in more service opportunities.  While we are planning group service events, we also would like to pass along this opportunity for you to individually volunteer with Publicolor.  They are seeking mentors and volunteers for the school year.  You can also download flyers (1, 2) with more information about both opportunities.

When: THIS THURSDAY, Sept. 8th, from 7 – 10pm
Where: Last Exit Bar, 136 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Cost: $5 suggested donation (will get you discounted drinks during the entire event)

There will be music, burlesque performers, pizza, a DJ, and amazing raffle prizes like Yankees tickets, restaurant gift certificates, movie tickets, a Trader Joe’s card, and more!

All proceeds will go directly to the Peter Cicchino Youth Project.  The Project is dedicated to helping homeless LGBTQ youth access housing, benefits, and legal advocacy.  Almost half of the homeless teens on the street in NYC identify as LGBTQ, and PCYP does incredibly important work to help young people meet their basic needs.

Please invite your friends, colleagues, and anyone you think might be interested!

We have posted the topics and discussions from our first general meeting: BLSPI minutes – 08.30.11.  Below are the upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.

• Student Activities Fair: Tomorrow from 1pm-6pm in the BLS quad/courtyard; we could use help from 1-2 if people are available.
• Charitable Bar Review: Tomorrow 9pm at Last Exit Bar; tell your friends to come drink for a good cause! (Hurricane Relief)
• Pro Bono Fair: September 7th 5pm-7pm; we will have a table there to promote our efforts on campus and could use help
• Halloween Party/Candy Drive: we will have a costume contest, games, and a date auction to raise money for orgs on campus
• Blood Drive: once a semester we sign up students and faculty to donate blood for the NY Blood Center

Also, don’t forget to sign up for the auction and community development committees to see how you can get involved now!

Lastly, congratulations and welcome to our new e-board chairs:

Treasurer: Erin Covert
Asst. Treasurer: Michael Andrews
Auction Chair: Anna Park

We are looking forward to a fantastic year!

For questions or suggestions, please email info@blspi.org or blspi@brooklaw.edu.

See you all tomorrow!
Meredith and Mike

If you would like to offer your wisdom to an incoming 1L who is interested in public interest lawyering (or if you are required to as part of your BLSPI fellowship!) please take 30 seconds to click the following link and fill out a very brief mentor registration form.
For upper class mentors – http://bit.ly/BLSPI-MentorReg

If you know a 1L who could use a mentor, please feel free to forward them the following link for mentees.  They can also come to the first meeting if they are averse to filling out an online form.
For 1L mentees – http://bit.ly/BLSPI-MentorMe

And of course, please do circulate this among other organizations with which you’re active!  Mentors need only be active in public interest lawyering, and be willing to at least take their mentee to coffee and offer support throughout the year.  Public interest work includes government work and non-profits of all kinds.  We’d like to be able to offer a good, diverse pool of mentors for the incoming class.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email either sarah.udashkin@brooklaw.edu or cristina.lee@brooklaw.edu.

Looking forward to a productive year for the BLSPI mentorship program!
Best,
Cristina and Sary
co-chairs, BLSPI Mentorship Program