A Commitment to Community
Jocelyn Granados Mejia, 1L, didn’t think a law school education was for her. Growing up with migrant parents and being undocumented herself, she came to believe the law is used as a weapon against her community. But her interest in the legal field grew when she participated in the LSAC Plus Program at Heritage University as it provided a pipeline for Latino/Latina/Latinx and Indigenous People to attend law school, while also encouraging them to return home to practice law.
Mejia’s UW Law classmate, Valentina Aznar, found out about the program from her older sister, who also attended and graduated from the program. As Aznar puts it, “Law school was always something I was interested in. And since Heritage [University] was very close to Yakima, where we live, we thought it was an amazing opportunity.”
Funded by a grant from the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), the LSAC Plus Program at Heritage University creates a partnership between Washington’s three law schools — University of Washington School of Law, Seattle University School of Law and Gonzaga University School of Law — in an effort to make law school more accessible for diverse students in Central Washington.
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Valentina Aznar (VA): We even went to the Yakima Superior Court, and we did a whole mock trial. So, it was students against students, and then some students were part of the jury. It was an awesome experience to, kind of, envision yourself in one of these places.
Heritage University worked with the three law schools. They were all partners, Gonzaga, SU and UW.
Jocelyn Granados Mejia (JGM): I was intrigued to learn more about what this program was and what the support system looked like.
VA: It ranged from two to three days a week. Sometimes we had a Saturday.
JGM: The LSAC Plus program was located in Toppenish, Washington, at the Heritage University campus. It consisted of about four weeks with different modules covering how to brief a case, how to talk to your professors, how to talk to an attorney.
VA: The program was targeted to Latina and Native students in Central Washington. Its main goal is to promote more diversity in the legal profession.
JGM: That is really important, especially in Central and Eastern Washington, because of the legal desert.
VA: Just like it is in many places in the state.
JGM: In Walla Walla, for example, where the county that I reside in, there's one or two immigration lawyers.
My most favorite experience was being able to be in community with other Latina attorneys or indigenous attorneys, who really exemplified that I could see myself in the law career.
VA: I also really enjoyed meeting the justices. So, we were able to meet Justice Yu and Justice Gonzalez. They came and spoke to us, and we were able to just ask any questions that we had in our minds.
JGM: Any person that I connected to was more than willing to spend some time with me and give me some tips, share more about their personal story that led them to law school.
VA: We were able to sit in a criminal law class, and we were able to observe and actually participate with the students. So, that was a pretty cool experience.
JGM: Being a Latina with migrant parents and being undocumented, I wasn't always sure the law was for me, I think we make up 4% of the legal career. Now that I do have this privilege of being in this legal field and profession, I think it is my duty as a lawyer to amplify other voices that tend to be systematically silenced.
VA: My goal is to return to Central Washington. I want to give back to my community. I also want to continue helping and mentoring students in Yakima, Central Washington, that are interested in law. If I can do that for somebody else, that's also first gen, I will continue to pay that forward.