The ASU College of Law and the Chicano Latino Law Students Association have designed a program to increase Latino representation in higher education by addressing the scarcity of Hispanic law students in America through a program called "Latinos in the Law."
2000 U.S. census figures show a dramatic growth in Arizona's Hispanic population, which increased by 88 percent statewide.
"Latinos in the Law" allows Latino undergraduate students from ASU and other community colleges to interact with current law students and lawyers from the Latino community in an attempt to increase their enrolment in higher education, primarily in the legal profession, she said. Brenda Brock, assistant dean and director of admissions and advisor to CLLSA, described two important areas that the state and colleges are currently facing — an increase in Hispanic population and a high dropout rate among college graduates.
"There are only about 2 percent of lawyers in America of a Latino background," Brock said. "To get the Hispanic people to start thinking about law school, I think we have to start with the basics of first getting them into college, retaining them and then pushing them toward higher education."
Lizette Alameda, president of CLLSA, cited the recent Hispanic population growth as a substantive reason for trying to push Latinos to try harder for a higher education.
"Hispanics in law can really hold their own and since they can use the legal degree for many different areas like business or politics, it is a highly versatile profession which can help this community," Alameda said.
Alex Dominguez, a third-year law student, said, "This program is trying to break the stereotypical notion of what lawyers should be like by including people from various ethnic backgrounds and race in a still predominantly white profession."
Reach Vedatrayee C. Banerjee at ctitam@hotmail.com.
