9/22/09--Boston College Law School is pleased to announce the recipients of the Public Service Scholarships for the Class of 2012: JT Do, Mike Knapp, and Lumina Sato.

These Scholarships provide full tuition annually to highly qualified applicants who plan to practice law in service of the public. In keeping with Boston College Law School's mission of education for service to others, this program encourages students to seek careers in the public sector, notwithstanding the expense and associated debts of their legal education and the relatively low salaries associated with such careers.

Recipients must reapply each year for the award.  The scholarship committee requests an updated resume and list of activities and summer work (paid and volunteer) that together demonstrate the recipient's continued commitment to public interest and public service law.  Public Service Scholars are required to provide new commitment letters before the beginning of each fall semester. 

Public Service Scholars are expected to work a minimum of five years in public service work after graduation. Scholars who decide not to pursue a career in the public sector are expected to repay the Public Service Scholarship.

Scholarship Recipient Profiles

JT Do (John Thomas H. Do) is the son of Vietnamese refugees. JT hails from San Jose, California and graduated in 2007 from Brown University where he studied religious studies and public policy.  Following a year with the San Francisco Bar's Volunteer Legal Services Program engaging in eviction defense of individuals with mental health disabilities, he most recently oversaw development and fundraising efforts for San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness, an organization dedicated to the civil rights of homeless people.  His areas of interest include community organizing, patients' rights during the civil commitment process, alternative dispute resolution, and solutions to chronic homelessness.

Mike Knapp was raised in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2006, with majors in Political Science and Spanish and a minor in Latin American Studies.  After graduation, Mike entered the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for a one year commitment.  His placement brought him to Portland, Oregon, where he served as the coordinator of an emergency services office.  The office offered food, rental, utility, clothing and furniture assistance.  In addition, he developed a program to provide primary health care to undocumented workers in the local area.  After his year with the JVC, Mike worked at a drug treatment center for men on parole or probation in the Portland area.  While at the center, Mike served various roles, including lead counselor for clients and facilitator of various treatment curriculums.  He worked at this position for the past two years.  Mike enjoys bicycle commuting, distance running, and yoga.  

Lumina Sato was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, and came to the U.S. to attend Brown University where she majored in Development Studies. Through working with the International Institute of Rhode Island and studying abroad in Puebla, Mexico, she became interested in U.S. immigration law and policy. For the past four years since graduation, she has worked as a paralegal at Masferrer & Associates, P.C., a small public interest firm that specializes in criminal and immigration defense. While there, Lumina worked predominantly with immigration clients on their deportation defense and asylum cases, as well as applications for visas and citizenship. Lumina's areas of interest include criminal defense, civil rights litigation, and immigration. She is especially interested in current U.S. immigration detention policy.

Previous Recipients:
Class of 2011

Moire Dobransky is from Willoughby Hills, Ohio.  She earned degrees in History and Political Science from Fordham University at Lincoln Center.  While at Fordham, Moire founded a Circle K chapter and AIDS Awareness Week.  She also served on the Dean's Advisory Board and as the student speaker at graduation.  As an undergraduate, Moire was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu (Jesuit Honor Society); Matteo Ricci Society (for scholarship); Phi Kappa Phi (Academic Honor Society); and Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science Honor Society).  She also made Dean's List and was the recipient of the Dean's Scholarship.

Prior to law school, Moire worked as Paralegal Specialist for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.  In addition, as a paralegal at Winston & Stawn LLP, Moire worked as a Case Researcher for the Innocence Project.  Moire was also a Red Cross Disaster Relief Volunteer.

At BC Law, Moire serves on the Pro Bono Program Board of Directors and as a section representative for the Criminal Justice Law Project and for the Coalition for Women's Human Rights.  She is also involved in the Public Interest Law Foundation.  She spent her first summer interning for the Honorable Scott Kafker on the Massachusetts Court of Appeals.  Moire plans to be a prosecutor.

Sarah Sherman-Stokes is from Bethesda, Maryland.  She earned her B.A. in Latin American Studies, Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude, from Bates College.  In writing her honors thesis, Building Alternatives in a Global Economy: The Nueva Vida Women's Sewing Cooperative, Sarah worked closely with women's sewing cooperative in Nicaragua, researching cooperative economies/alternative development frameworks.  While at Bates, she was a union organizer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU); an ESL teacher for the Maine Rural Workers Coalition; an assistant teacher in an 8th grade class at Lewiston Middle school; and co-coordinator of social justice student organization called the New World Coalition.  She also organized a cross-cultural/cross-border community learning seminar on trade, globalization, and economics in Lewiston, Maine and in Nicaragua.

Prior to law school Sarah worked as a deportation defense paralegal at the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition.  She also volunteered as a member/organizer for the Detention Watch Network; a participant/NGO representative on fact-finding delegation to Guatemala to research youth gangs/deportation for Georgetown Human Rights Action; a volunteer paralegal for the Boston College Immigration and Asylum Project; and a researcher in a participatory action research project on the effects of deportation on families for the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College.

At BC Law, Sarah serves as a first-year representative on the Public Interest Law Foundation Board, and she co-founded the Immigration Law Group.  She spent her first summer interning at the Committee for Public Counsel Services in the Immigration Impact and Felony Crimes Units.

Sarah is fluent in Spanish and is learning French.  She plans to pursue a career in immigration and/or criminal law.

Anna Tavis is from Brooklyn, New York.  She earned her B.A., magna cum laude, in Metropolitan Studies and Spanish from New York University, College of Arts and Sciences.

While at NYU, Anna taught English in El Salvador and at the Island School.  She also interned at the Urban Justice Center for its Mental Health and Outreach and Prevention Projects and at the Restaurant Opportunities Center as an Outreach and Organizing Intern.

Prior to law school, Anna worked at the Urban Justice Center as a legal advocate in the Homelessness Outreach and Prevention Project.  In her free time, she volunteered at the Legal Aid Society's Homeless Rights Project and the Urban Justice Center's Sex Workers Project.

As a first-year law student, Anna serves on the BC Law Pro Bono Program Board of Directors.  She spent her spring break at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center doing domestic violence work.  This summer she will intern at Greater Boston Legal Services in the Elderly Unit.

Anna is fluent in Russian and Spanish and proficient in German.  She plans to pursue a career in poverty and/or immigration law.

Class of 2010

Anna Evans is from Gaithersburg, Maryland.  She earned her A.B. in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University.

Anna is a former volunteer at a group home for women with HIV and drug addictions and a former intern with the National Network to End Domestic Violence.  She was also a fellow with Save the Children U.S. at the Vietnam Field Office in Hanoi.  Immediately prior to law school, Anna was a Managing Director at WomensLaw.org.

She spends her free time as a law student volunteering as a hotline responder for WomensLaw.org.  During her first summer, she interned at the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in the Family Protection Unit.  She will return to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office to intern in the Boston Municipal Court during her second summer in law school.

Anna is proficient in French and basic Vietnamese, and she has her TEFL certification.  She plans to pursue a career in domestic violence law and/or criminal prosecution.


Margaretta Homsey is from Wilmington, Delaware.  She graduated, cum laude, from Harvard University with a B.A. in History.  She was the recipient of a John Harvard Scholarship and a Harvard Center for Public Interest Career Fellowship.  As an undergraduate, Margaretta spent summers as a volunteer staff member for Children's International Summer Villages.

After graduating from Harvard, Margaretta joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps as a community organizer at the New York State Tenants and Neighbors Coalition.  Immediately prior to law school, Margaretta was the project coordinator the Legal Clinic for the Homeless (at the New York City Bar Justice Center).

Margaretta's many extracurricular activities at BC Law include serving as secretary of the Community and Economic Development Law Group, coordinator of the Immigration Spring Break Trips, and vice-president of the Public Interest Law Foundation.  She spent her first spring break in law school performing pro bono work at the Political Asylum Project in Austin, Texas. Margaretta has participated in two clinics: the Immigration Clinic and the Advanced Immigration Clinic.  She is also a staff member on the Boston College Law Review.  She spent her first summer interning in the Housing Unit of Neighborhood Legal Services.  She will spend her second summer interning in the Health and Disability Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services.

Margaretta plans to pursue a career in civil legal services.

Martha Kashickey is from Garfield, New Jersey.  She earned her B.A. in Political Science from Yale University.  At Yale, Martha was the co-director of a summer school program for gifted and talented inner-city youth and the executive director of undergraduate opera company.

Prior to law school Martha worked as a criminal justice policy associate at the Innocence Project and then as the communications director of the Coalition to Raise the Minimum Standards at New York City Jails.

As a first-year law student Martha won BC Law's intramural negotiation competition and the Northeast Regional Negotiation Competition, and she was a semi-finalist in the national negotiation competition.  She participated in the Immigration Spring Break Trip, serves as president of the Criminal Justice Law Project, and is an investigator for the BC Defenders Clinic.  Martha spent her first summer at the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society of New York and will spend her second summer at the Bronx Defenders.  She also represents low-income clients in family law matters in the Women and the Law Clinic.

Martha plans to pursue a career in criminal defense and prisoners' rights.

Kate Sabatini is from Woodbury, Connecticut.  She earned her B.A., cum laude, in International Studies (European Studies) from Middlebury College.  She was a College Scholar and on the Dean's List at Middlebury.

Prior to law school, Kate served as a staff assistant to Congressman James Langevin (RI-02).  She then worked as a special assistant and as a research associate for economic policy at the Center for American Progress.  At the Center for American Progress, Kate authored a number of articles, which appeared in various publications such as The Baltimore Sun and Challenge: the Magazine of Economic Affairs, and she appeared in a live interview on the BBC World, World Business Report.  She was also a volunteer for Everyone Wins! (reading program) and for Echo at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain (aquarium and science center).

At BC Law, Kate is chair of the Community and Economic Development student organization and a teaching assistant for Civil Procedure.  Additionally, she is a staff writer on the Boston College Law Review and is currently interning for the Honorable William Robinson, III on the Rhode Island Supreme Court. Kate also represents clients in the Housing Law Clinic.  She spent her first summer as a public housing intern at the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest in Chicago, Illinois.  She will spend her second summer as an intern at the Attorney General of Rhode Island's Appellate Division and Juvenile Prosecution Unit.

Kate is fluent in Italian and conversant in Spanish.  She plans to pursue a career in housing law, community development, and/or consumer protection.