3/14/08--Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that first-year student Elizabeth Monnin-Browder has been named a Schweitzer fellow for the 2008-09 academic year. 

"Liz is a remarkable person," BC law professor Mary Ann Chirba-Martin said, "and Boston College has done very well this year receiving four Schweitzer Fellowships overall.  BC is the only school in the country to receive a Fellowship for a law student."

This will mark the 4th year in a row that a BC Law student has received the Fellowship.

Monnin-Browder also received a Rappaport Scholarship, which will support her work at the Massachusetts Attorney General's newly formed health law unit this summer. For her Schweitzer project, Monnin-Browder will be continuing her work in establishing a legal services organization to address the many legal and health benefits issues confronting transgender individuals.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in 1940 to support the medical work Dr. Albert Schweitzer was doing in Lambarene during World War II.  A 1958 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, by the age of 30 Schweitzer decided to devote the rest of his life to serving the medical needs in Africa.  He opened a hospital in Lambarene, Gabon. Today the Schweitzer Fellowship still continues to provide direct assistance to the hospital in Lambarene, but now focuses on helping other underserved communities within the United States as well.