NAPABA Law Foundation Names
2021 Sharon and Ivan Leadership (SAIL) Scholars
Washington, DC (August 2, 2021) — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Law Foundation (NLF) announced today that three exceptional law students have been awarded SAIL Scholarships for their outstanding professional promise and leadership potential.
“These three law students exhibit the very best not only in their academic excellence, but especially in their demonstrated leadership and service to their communities,” said NLF president John K. Kim. “NLF and SAIL are proud to be a small part of these brilliant and dedicated students’ journeys as they continue to contribute to their communities, complete their studies and embark on their legal careers.”
The three 2021 NLF SAIL Scholars are:
Rebecca DiPietro is a second-year J.D. candidate at the Georgetown University Law Center, where she is a Global Law Scholar, a staff member of The Georgetown Law Journal, vice president of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and a Legal Practice Law Fellow. She earned her B.A. magna cum laude in Government and Chinese at Georgetown University, where she won the Chinese department award for her honors thesis, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and studied abroad in Beijing, China. Prior to law school, Becca worked on the international team of the National Governors Association, and as an undergraduate, she interned with former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski.
Madeleine Matsui is a second-year law student at Harvard Law School. She is the incoming Political Chair of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, a content editor with the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender and the Director of Community Development at the Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project. Prior to law school, Madeleine worked in San Francisco for three years, first at a public interest law firm and then on the legal team of a technology company. Madeleine grew up in Hong Kong and received her B.A. magna cum laude in International Relations and Urban Studies from Brown University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Shao Zhao is a second-year J.D. scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she is an associate editor of the California Law Review and a judicial extern for the Honorable Chief Judge Miranda Du of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. Before and during law school, she worked as a law clerk for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, assisting low-income monolingual Chinese-speaking individuals with housing, government benefits, family law, immigration and employment matters. Shao received her B.A. cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard College, where she received the Harvard Asian American Reflections Award for outstanding contributions to the Harvard Asian American community.
“We are excited to welcome these three inspiring and talented law students into the second cohort of SAIL Scholars,” said Ivan Fong, who with his wife Sharon endowed the NLF SAIL Scholarship program. “We wanted to give back to the community and could think of no better way than to invest in the next generation of community-minded leaders in the legal profession,” he added, “and no better organization with whom to partner than NLF.”
Two unique aspects of the SAIL Scholarship program are that, in addition to monetary support, SAIL Scholars will also receive mentoring and leadership development from each other and from a network of legal and community leaders. “A second feature of this scholarship program,” said Sharon Fong, “is that the recipients commit to ‘paying it forward’ — by supporting each other, future SAIL Scholars and the communities in which they will live and work.”
The 2021 NLF SAIL Scholarship selection committee was comprised of Juliet Choi, NLF Board member and President and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF); the Honorable Theodore Chuang, U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland; Esther Lim, partner at the Finnegan law firm and a former D.C. Bar president; and the Honorable Goodwin Liu, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court.
NLF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that carries out its work primarily by awarding scholarships and fellowships that promote the interests of the Asian Pacific American community. Since its founding, the Foundation has awarded more than $500,000 in scholarships and over $1 million in fellowships and internships.
For more information about NLF and the SAIL Scholarship program and application process, please visit www.napabalawfoundation.org/scholarships.
# # #