The Utah Center for Legal Inclusion is pleased to announce this year’s recipients for the Bar Review Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship.
The winners are: Laura Kyte, Alex Sanchez, Sarah Martinez, and Emily Walter. Photos and short biographies included below.
Congratulations to our 2o21 recipients!
Laura is a recent BYU Law grad and has a B.A. in history from UVU. Before law school she worked for several years as a real estate agent and was a stay at home mom before that. She is now a single mom of two teenagers and decided to go to law school after a history professor, while completing her undergrad, encouraged her to think about it. Laura realized that early in childhood she had formed the belief that girls and "poor kids" like her didn't become lawyers. Now she could see that a career in the law was an ideal intersection between a career and her interests in helping historically marginalized groups. Laura hopes to make sure little girls and kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds don't have to wait until they're forty to realize they'd be great lawyers. After the bar, Laura has a Fellowship in the litigation division of the Utah Attorney General's Office and then, starting August of 2022, will clerk for Judge Hagen of the Utah Court of Appeals.
Sarah Martinez recently graduated from the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law. During her time as a law student Sarah held interests in DEI, environmental law, and immigration law. To this end, Sarah served as president of the Natural Resources Law Forum, Secretary of the Minority Law Caucus, chaired the SBA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee, and provided pro se assistance to detained immigrants outside San Antonio, Texas. Post-graduation, Sarah hopes to continue working on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in the legal field.
Alex Sanchez recently graduated from the S.J. Quinney College of Law. He grew up in Salt Lake City and graduated from the University of Utah in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. After earning these degrees, he briefly attended law school at the University of Idaho College of Law. During his short time there, he served as membership chair of the American Constitution Society and was involved in coordinating a "Know Your Rights as Immigrants" community training event for a migrant community located in Othello, Washington. After gaining admission at S.J. Quinney College of Law, he further developed his passion for criminal defense through internships with the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center, the criminal defense firm of Conyers & Nix, the Salt Lake Legal Defender's Association, and by working on federally appointed criminal cases as a Criminal Justice Act Intern. Alex is also the co-founder and former Vice-President of the First-Generation Law Students Organization, a student group that was created in the Spring of 2020. He was recently offered a position at the Salt Lake Legal Defender's Association where he plans to begin working after the Bar exam.
Emily recently graduated from the BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School. Before law school, Emily completed a B.A. in French Teaching and then taught high school Spanish for three years in Washington, DC. Emily decided to pursue a legal education to develop her advocacy skills and improve the conditions of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in the United States. In law school, she focused her studies on tax and social justice and served on the board of the Minority Law and the Latino/a Law Students Association. After the bar, Emily plans to continue pursuing opportunities to further equity and inclusion within the legal profession.
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