This year’s Legal Education Action Program in Houston marks its third summer education session..
(Houston, TX) – June 19, 2015 – The Hispanic National Bar Association – Legal Education Fund (HNBA-LEF) is proud to host its 2015 Legal Education Action Program (LEAP) at Rice University in Houston, Texas June 21-28. LEAP introduces Hispanic high school students to the United States legal system, specifically by enrolling and providing scholarships to selected high school students from diverse backgrounds across the United States.
This year’s LEAP program has selected several deserving Texas youth to receive scholarships, including Cassandra Caloca, a 10 th grader from Middle College High School. “I feel that I deserve to attend LEAP because I’m at a good age to get a feel of what opportunities are out there for me,” said Caloca. “I am full of ambition and I want to be successful in life.”
In addition to scholarships, LEAP also provides students the opportunity to meet with national and international business leaders, lawyers in private practice, government lawyers, government agency officials, state and federal judges, and law professors. This year’s agenda includes a law firm panel on the practice of law in a small firm hosted by Firm Partner and HNBA-LEF President Benny Agosto, Jr. at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner on Wednesday, June 24. “The students participate in a life-shaping experience,” said Agosto. “Former students have contacted us to say again how LEAP changed their lives and focus on advancing their education.”
Throughout the LEAP program, participants learn of the many different careers they may pursue with a law degree or other graduate degree, by interacting with leaders who resemble their diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is the hope of the HNBA-LEF that LEAP equips students to set their sights on becoming leaders within their communities. “The LEAP program guides students to understand that there are key players that have the capacity to serve as leaders trained in law in our nation’s governance, judicial and legal systems,” said Agosto.
The underwriting of this ambitious education program is made possible by contributions from supporting sponsors including private donors, corporations, law firms, and law schools. “The HNBA-LEF is honored to bring this pipeline program to life thanks to the generous backing of our underwriters and sponsors as well as leaders from our nation’s legal community to accomplish our goals for LEAP,” said Agosto.
The HNBA-LEF is a tax-exempt non-profit corporation organized for charitable and educational purposes. The affiliated Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) is a non-profit, association of professionals in the legal profession, representing the interests of over 100,000 Hispanic-American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students in the United States and Puerto Rico. For information on how to become an inaugural sponsor of LEAP, please contact Cynthia Carrasco, Esq., LEAP Director, at 626-215-3710 or [email protected]. For other information on LEAP, please contact Benny Agosto, Jr., HNBA-LEF President and Houston LEAP contact, at (713) 222-7211 or [email protected].