The Utah Center for Legal Inclusion in partnership with the Young Lawyer’s Division of the Utah State Bar is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the UCLI Bar Review Scholarship. This scholarship is offered to law students who are registered to take the July 2025 Utah State Bar Examination who have an exceptional record of service during their law school careers. Scholarship funds help students cover expenses of registering and studying for the bar exam.
Congratulations to the four recipients of the 2025 UCLI Bar Review Scholarship: Paulina Barboza, Alyssa Hunzeker, Ashley Zulema Whetten Soroa, and Courtney Gamangasso.
Find out more below about these amazing scholarship winners.
Paulina Barboza
Paulina is a first-generation American, raised by immigrant parents from Colombia and Mexico, and the first in her family to graduate from college and pursue a law degree. She is also a proud single mother to her 7-year-old son, Mateo Gabriel. These aspects of her identity have profoundly shaped her values and her decision to pursue a career in law.
She entered law school with a clear purpose: to serve as a voice for underrepresented communities and to help shape progressive public policy that reflects the needs of those too often overlooked. During her time in law school, she has dedicated herself to working with organizations that support Utah’s diverse populations.
Her legal experience includes work with the Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association and the Utah Attorney General’s Office, where she has witnessed the powerful role legal advocacy can play—particularly for individuals navigating a justice system that has not always served them equitably. After graduation, she plans to continue this work, using her legal training to advocate for civil rights, social justice, and meaningful change in Salt Lake City.
Alyssa Hunzeker
Alyssa Hunzeker is a recent graduate from Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School. During law school, Alyssa served as the president of the Minority Law Students Association and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and interned with Magistrate Judge Jared C. Bennett and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Her legal experiences also include working at BYU’s Title IX Office and lobbying in Washington D. C. with the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC). After taking the bar, Alyssa will clerk for Judge Brian Y. Furuya at the Arizona Court of Appeals. In her free time, Alyssa enjoys traveling, playing the piano, and trying new restaurants.
Ashley Zulema Whetten Soroa
Ashley Whetten Soroa was born in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. Her family moved to Allen, Texas when she was one. Growing up as a DACA recipient, she understands the plight of undocumented immigrants in the United States. While studying International Relations at BYU, she felt drawn to serve her community by volunteering with a non-profit immigration organization called No More A Stranger Foundation. This began her passion for understanding immigration law and serving immigrants. During law school, she gained experience in various immigration issues through her time at the Mexico Regional Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Fragomen Del Rey Bersen & Loewy, Catholic Community Services, and Perretta Law Office. In her freetime, you can find her and her husband, Jeff, personal training their twelve-year-old pug, Jack, through his weight-loss journey. Ashley graduated from J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. She is thrilled to return to Perretta Law Office after she takes the bar.
Courtney Gamangasso
Courtney will graduate from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law with a J.D. and a Certificate in Criminal Law. A Salt Lake City native, she earned her undergraduate degree in Philosophy with a minor in French from Westminster College (now Westminster University). During law school, Courtney served as a Note and Comment Editor for the Utah Law Review and competed on SJQ’s Trial Advocacy team, advancing to the semi-finals of the TYLA Competition in Portland, Oregon. She also volunteered at the Pro Bono Initiative and studied international, refugee, and asylum law in Rome and Cambridge. Courtney is passionate about criminal law and committed to promoting fairness, empathy, and justice for all parties involved in the legal system.
