In October 2021, first-year law students Erika Basurto (UC Berkeley School of Law) and Raquel Eugenia Grande (UC Hastings College of the Law) were honored as the 2021-2022 Wilson Sonsini Foundation Diversity Scholars at the virtual ChangeLawyers Next Gen Awards. The annual awards event celebrated the latest cohort of scholars, who collectively are first generation, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and others whose lived experiences and identities are significantly underrepresented in the halls of power.
Please see below to learn more about Erika and Raquel, as well as the ChangeLawyers Diversity Scholarship Program. Erika Basurto
A native of Whittier, California, Erika is motivated to promote equal access to justice after witnessing the various barriers faced by the Latinx community and communities of color more broadly. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley in 2016. After graduating from college, she worked as a paralegal casehandler at the Legal Aid Society in New York, as a paralegal for the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project in New York, and as a substitute teacher in Los Angeles.
What led you to pursue the study of law?
As a first-generation student of color, I decided to pursue the study of law to promote equal access to justice. In college, as a volunteer for the Centro Legal De La Raza, where I interpreted for Spanish-speaking immigrants facing wage theft, I saw how income, language, and citizenship status limit access to justice. The disproportionate...
What This Story Is About Tennessee election officials are debunking a social-media claim that a poll worker’s administrative marking automatically invalidates a ballot. Why It Matters The statemen...