The DePaul Law table at the 2016 Unity Awards Dinner. (standing, left to right) Mahmud Suwwan, Fadya Salem (3L), Emily Steinert (2L), Kary Moyer, Terry Smith; (seated, left to right) Bryanna Jenkins (1L), Lark Mulligan (3L), Lubna S. El-Gendi, Ben Alba.DePaul University College of Law
congratulates three students, Lark Mulligan, Fadya Salem and Emily
Steinert, on winning scholarships at the
2016 Unity Award Dinner & 14th Swearing-In of Bar Presidents Ceremony. Both Mulligan and
Steinert received the Jerold S. Solovy Diversity Scholarship
Award, which honors students who promote diversity within the legal
field and improve their communities as a whole through
pro bono work and advocacy. Salem earned a Bar Exam Preparation
Scholarship, which goes to third-year students with proven academic success, plus
the need for financial aid.
All three students engage in
public interest law through different areas. Mulligan, who also
recently won the Women's Bar Foundation scholarship, provides
extensive assistance to the Transformative Justice Law Project of
Illinois and focuses on LGBTQ issues, namely offering pro bono legal
aid to transgender people. Steinert helps refugees and other
underrepresented people by working for nonprofit organizations,
including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights,
United Nations Population Fund and the Cape Town Refugee Center in
South Africa. Salem educates others on their constitutional rights
through her association with the First Defense Legal Aid Street Law Program
and Neighborhood Legal Assistance Project.
The Unity Award Dinner is hosted by the
Diversity Scholarship Foundation, NFP. It celebrates legal
professionals across three states who are dedicated to enhancing
diversification within the legal community, and has become one of the region's biggest professional diversity events. Along with honoring
students, the ceremony recognized others who have chosen careers in public service, such as Illinois Secretary of State Jesse
White, who was this year's Unity Award Recipient; Chasity Boyce,
Tiffany Harper and Cecilia Horan, who were among the Advocates for
Diversity Awards recipients and the Honorable Laura C. Liu who
posthumously won the Access to Justice Award. The dinner also
features the symbolic swearing-in of more than 50 bar presidents who
pledge their commitment to diversity, unity and friendship among
their fellow professionals; Judge Timothy Evans officiated
2016's Oath of Unity.
Lubna S. El-Gendi, director of student
affairs and diversity, hosted the DePaul Law
table and spoke highly of the students and their "inspiring,
amazing work for communities," as well as of the numerous alumni who supported the event. She further complimented the organizers for
the night and the entertainment, which featured Secretary White's
tumbling group. El-Gendi also noted that following the heated
rhetoric surrounding this year's presidential election, it was
encouraging to see people who recognize the importance of
diversity and of bettering their communities.