Author: Rafaela Uribe LAW '19

Summer Internships: The Ella Baker Internship at the Center for Constitutional Rights

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to be an Ella Baker Intern at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. CCR is a legal organization whose work is centered on supporting social movements. This means that, at CCR, lawsuits are not simply about who wins and loses in the courtroom, but how legal work can support wider systemic change. The Ella Baker program is named after one of the most brilliant strategist and organizers of the Civil Rights Movement and carries forward her work by equipping young lawyers with the necessary tools to become movement lawyers. I, along with 11 other law students and two undergraduate interns from across the country, started the program with an exercise asking four questions: Who are the people who inspire us to do social justice work? What is our superpower? What was our “aha moment” that led us to law school and CCR? What we each do to relax? The people who inspire me have always been my family and my community in the Bronx. I …

Service Doesn’t Stop: Honoring the Work of Dr. King Throughout the Year

This past week the Temple Law community celebrated the legacy and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by taking part in a variety of service projects around Philadelphia. Students signed up to become certified tax preparers for low income families for the federal VITA program, paint a mural at Warren G. Harding Middle School, and be part of a beautifying effort at Jane Addams Place, an emergency homeless shelter for women and children.  I signed up for the hands-on project at Jane Addams Place, excited for a day full of service with my fellow classmates. Today over 40 million people in America live below the poverty line, with communities of color disproportionately affected, reminding us that we have far to go in realizing not only Dr. King’s dream of racial equality but economic justice as well. At Jane Addams Place, law students along with volunteers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia engaged in a variety of activities.  We deep cleaned base boards and the children’s play room, led arts and crafts projects with some …