By Angela Schultz
Racial and Class Inequities in Experiential Learning Opportunities
As you build your AALS Annual Conference plans, make sure to add our section’s session to your agenda set for Wednesday, January 6th at 8AM Pacific, 11AM Central, 12PM Eastern. The session panelists will discuss who are we, why we do this work, what we bring to this work, and the need and importance of providing students with chances to consider the larger context within which pro bono, field placements, clinical, and public service work generally are done. This context includes the great need for free legal aid being due, in part, to laws and public policies that have been direct contributors to high levels of concentrated poverty, particularly among communities of color. Panelists will talk about how they are currently contextualizing this reality with students, what some of the hurdles are, and provide some resources and tools to support others taking on this critical work. As we move into 2021, our students and our institutions need and demand more facilitated conversations about racism and the realities of other inequities. While we acknowledge these important conversations need to take place, how can we move into them while acknowledging our fear and lack of expertise? How can we support each other to be brave and to learn while knowing we will make mistakes? How will we keep moving forward? Come learn from some ‘experts’ who are doing and trying things we can all learn from and take back to our own work. Join us.
Panelists are Alexi Freeman, Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Director of Social Justice Initiatives; Amanda Rivas, Externship Director, St. Mary’s College of Law; and Michele Storms, Executive Director, ACLU of Washington. Moderated by Angela Schultz, Assistant Dean for Public Interest Law, Marquette University School of Law.