by Cynthia Price
Legal News
The Grand Rapids Bar Association’s Legal Assistants Section wants to underscore the value they place on education and opportunity, so they will offer another $1000 scholarship this year.
According to the section’s scholarship committee member Paula Lewison, a legal assistant at McShane and Bowie, “Tiesha Hogue and I picked it up last year after nothing had been done for a few years because we thought it was so important.”
The GRBA Legal Assistants Section exists to encourage a high level of ethical and professional standards, promote the profession, and support pro bono work in the community. The scholarship offers the members the opportunity for “giving back to the community and contributing to the future of our profession,” according
to the Section’s blog at http://grbalas.blogspot.com.
Funding for the scholarship comes from section dues. Says Lewison, “Of course, if there’s ever any more money available, we’d like to do more.”
The 2010 scholarship committee consisted of Kalamazoo legal assistant Bonnie Riley, Lewison, and Hogue. They worked hard to find a worthy recipient, and were delighted to give it to Theresa R. Ergang, a Davenport student who has worked with troubled children and hopes her legal studies will help her to expand that work.
The 2011 application is due Mary 27. Interested parties may obtain it by going to the Bar’s home page, www.grbar.org, and click on one of the links at the bottom of the home page, depending on whether a Word document or a PDF is desirable.
Applications must include an official transcript from either high school or college; a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s current teacher or counselor, and another letter of recommendation from a non-family associate of the applicant’s choice.
Each applicant must write an essay addressing: 1. what he or she hopes to accomplish besides good grades and a degree; 2) what use the applicant hopes to make of his or her education in the workplace and community; and 3) the contributions he or she hopes to make while applying legal assistant skills.
Lewison says that there is no particular focus the committee is looking for. “Until you read what’s submitted, you never know what you’ll find. You have to try and figure out who the person is as a whole, what they have gone through and where they want to go. It’s hard to say what will make someone stand out.”
But the application also notes that “Grammar, neatness, attention to instructions, and completeness of application will be considered.”
Tiesha Hogue, who works in the office of the general counsel at Grand Valley State University, is now the chair of the Legal Assistants Section.
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