Sharie Cassioppi, 2L, Awarded Human Rights Fellowship By World Without Genocide

Sharie Cassioppi, 2L, was awarded a Benjamin B. Ferencz Fellowship in Human Rights by World Without Genocide, a St. Paul-based human rights organization. The fellowships provide financial support through World Without Genocide for work on core areas of human rights, including research, policy development, and action at local, state, national, and international levels.

Cassioppi, who currently works as a legal intern for the International Leadership Institute, was selected to pursue the goal of raising public awareness about reparations for systemic injustice. The fellowship is named for one of the world’s leading advocates for human rights, Benjamin B. Ferencz. In Nuremberg, Germany, in 1947, Ferencz prosecuted members of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads responsible for the deaths of more than a million Jews during the Holocaust.

2L Eura Chang Receives Scholarship for Professional Promise, Leadership Potential

Eura Chang, 2L, was one of four law students selected nationally to receive the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Law Foundation’s inaugural Sharon and Ivan Fong Leadership Scholarship for outstanding professional promise and leadership potential. Chang is a member of the Minnesota Law Review, a Robina Public Interest Scholar, and co-president of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association. Before law school, Chang taught English in Senegal on a Fulbright grant and later served as a state operations coordinator and parent educator for Stand for Children Colorado. She received her B.A. cum laude in educational studies, political science, and French and Francophone studies from Macalester College, where she won the George Stanley Prize for Civic Engagement and was founder and president of Students for Educational Equity.

Marisa Tillman, 3L, Recognized for Outstanding Service by MJF

Marisa Tillman, 3L, was recognized by the Minnesota Justice Foundation with an Outstanding Service Award. At the Law School, Tillman participated in the Asylum Law Project with the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. She was also a certified student attorney with the Binger Center for New Americans’ Detainee Rights Clinic. Previously, Tillman served as a refugee intern and mentor through Lutheran Social Services, an intern with Chicano Latino Affairs Council, and as a legal assistant with Lutheran Volunteer Corps through World Relief Immigration Clinic.

Meghan Knapp, 3L, Named 2020 Equal Justice Award Recipient by Minnesota Women Lawyers

Meghan Knapp, 3L, was named the recipient of the 2020 Equal Justice Award by Minnesota Women Lawyers. This annual award invites a law student in Minnesota to submit a paper on a topic involving law and social justice. Knapp’s article is entitled, “Romani Women’s Right to Water: Bringing Intersectional Discrimination Claims in the E.U.” Knapp works as a research assistant for Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, and she is a full-time intern with the Guernica Centre for International Justice in San Francisco, where she is working on multiple transitional justice projects in Latin America and Africa.

3Ls Meghan Knapp, Jackie Fielding Named Post-Grad Robina Fellows

Meghan Knapp, 3L, and Jackie Fielding, 3L, were named 2020 Robina Post-Graduate Fellows. Robina Post-Graduate Fellowships are supported by the Robina Foundation in recognition of the need for greater funding for recent graduates who want to pursue public interest work. These highly competitive fellowships provide funding for fellows to work full-time, for one year, in a legal or policy role at a nonprofit or government agency. Knapp’s fellowship is with the Guernica Centre for International Justice in San Francisco, which hosted her for a Remote Semester Field Placement (a Law School course) this spring. The Guernica Centre is a nonprofit organization that helps assist individuals, civil society groups, and institutions in implementing strategies to ensure accountability and redress for international crimes against humanity. Fielding’s fellowship is with the Brennan Center for Justice. Based in New York City, the Brennan Center is an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization dedicated to advancing the interests of democracy and justice.

Emily Franco, 3L, Recognized for Service and Leadership

Emily Franco, 3L, was named a recipient of the University of Minnesota President’s Student Leadership and Service Award for her role in establishing a food pantry in Mondale Hall in order to serve the needs of Minnesota Law’s student community. In a message to the University community, President Joan T.A. Gabel described this award as “honoring outstanding students for their invaluable leadership and service to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the community.”