The Justice & Diversity Center (JDC) of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) is proud to announce the 2022 recipients of its Bay Area Minority Law Student Scholarships. Thanks to the generosity of donors, four scholarships will be awarded to minority students attending Bay Area law schools this fall.

Scholarship donors include: The Arthur and Charlotte Zitrin Foundation, AT&T, Morrison and Foerster Foundation, and Coblentz, Patch, Duffy, and Bass LLP.

The 2022 scholarship recipients are Akayla Sellers, University of San Francisco School of Law; Isaac Calderon, UC Hastings College of the Law; Maribel Villareal, UC Hastings College of Law, and Nancy Alcaraz Arreola, UC Hastings.

Akayla Sellers is a first year law student at the University of San Francisco School of Law. She was a Public Health major and minored in Political Science at the College of Charleston. As a child, Akayla started to feel that being of Gullah Geechee descent meant that she had no place in pursuing education. In an educational system ranked 43rd out of the 52 states, growing up as a Black child in Charleston often felt like furthering her education was an unattainable dream. Her culture was not respected, and financially, going to college was nearly impossible to make a reality. Through her dedication and hard work she persevered to prove to herself that higher education could be obtainable and that she could access scholarships through educational merit. Akayla wants to utilize her experience, education, and community network to support the livelihoods and prosperity of disenfranchised communities. She also wants to pursue civil rights cases to preserve the legacy and history of the Black Diaspora. (Sponsor: The Arthur and Charlotte Zitrin Foundation)

Isaac Calderon is a first year law student at UC Hastings College of Law. He holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology from UC Irvine and a Paralegal Certificate from UC Santa Barbara with a focus on Employment Law. As someone who has grown up in a low income household, and had multiple mental illnesses, he became accustomed to understanding the struggles of others. Isaac has been an advocate of mental health since his sophomore year in high school, at an age where mental health was stigmatized and likely not understood by most people. Outside of mental health, he is a strong advocate for those who may be oppressed or have lifestyles greatly hindered by legal decisions or policies. He will relentlessly advocate for his clients and stand up for his viewpoints. (Sponsor: Coblentz, Patch, Duffy, and Bass LLP)

Maribel Villareal is a second year law student at UC Hastings College of Law and a member of the La Raza Law Student Association. She was a Political Science major at UC Merced and a Policy Analyst with the Office of Councilmember Sergio Jimenez in the City of San Jose. Her father was diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer. She was his advocate, attorney, and social worker all in one. Her experiences through his illness confirmed her longing to become an attorney. She wants to work on policy at the Federal Level and take on health insurance companies to expand healthcare coverage, further regulate pharmaceutical companies, and ban disease causing products and food. She also wants to ensure that every individual in this country has health insurance and a fighting chance to beat disease. Getting into law school and fulfilling her lifelong goal of becoming an attorney will be forever a tribute to her father, Rodolfo Villareal. (Sponsor: AT&T)

Nancy Alcaraz Arreola is a second year law student at UC Hastings College of Law and a member of La Raza Student Association. She was Political Science major at UCLA with a concentration on race, ethnicity, and politics. She was 12 years old when her two older brothers were shot in a drive by gang shooting, but they survived. Navigating life in California’s Central Valley seemed like jumping hurdles when she was growing up. As a teenager, she watched the cycle of poverty continue as her brothers reverted to the same low wage farm labor that destroyed her parents’ health because no one would hire people with criminal records. From the frequent interactions of law enforcement brutalizing her brothers, to the never-ending legal struggle her undocumented mother encountered, a picture of a fundamentally inequitable and unjust system began to paint itself before her eyes. Giving back to her community and strengthening the voice of underserved and underrepresented communities is the driving force behind her determination. She plans to pursue a career in public defense and civil rights work because the fight against mass incarceration is deeply interconnected with the opportunity to receive adequate education, housing, employment, and healthcare. (Sponsor: Morrison & Foerster Foundation)

Scholarships were awarded based on financial need, scholastics, involvement in public service and barriers faced in life. Each recipient will receive a $10,000 scholarship for the 2022-2023 academic year, which may be renewable for an additional one to two years. Donors of former and continuing scholarships include Morrison & Foerster, AT&T, Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, PG&E, Keker, Van Nest & Peters, and many others.

Since its inception in 1998, the Bay Area Minority Law Student Scholarship program has awarded more than $2 million in support to 100+ students. The program was established to reaffirm a commitment to diversity in legal education and the legal profession.