Elizabeth Frankel Summer Fellowship
About the Young Center
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a national organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights and best interests—safety and well-being—of immigrant children in the United States. Through the Young Center’s Child Advocate Program, staff and volunteers work to serve as Child Advocate for unaccompanied and separated immigrant children pursuant to the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and the 2013 Violence Against Women Act. Our role is to identify and advocate for the best interests of immigrant children, both while they are in federal custody and after they are released, applying federal and state laws and long-recognized principles of the best interests of the child. The Young Center also engages in policy work, advocating with legislators, federal agencies, and other stakeholders to promote consideration of the best interests of the child in all decisions concerning immigrant children and to create a dedicated juvenile immigrant justice system that treats children as children. The Young Center has offices in Chicago, Harlingen, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Washington, D.C.
About Elizabeth M. Frankel
Elizabeth M. Frankel (1977-2021) was the first Associate Director of the Young Center. She joined the Young Center in late 2009, as just the third full-time employee, becoming part of a trio of attorneys in Chicago who would develop and implement an entirely new model for advocating for the rights of immigrant children and youth. Today the Young Center has eight offices across the country with more than 80 staff; Liz was involved in the creation and development of each and every office. From 2009 to 2015, Liz taught in the Immigrant Child Advocacy Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. She loved mentoring law students and seeing them use their skills to take pro bono cases or jobs in public interest law.
About the Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship Program
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights announces the first annual Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship for the 2022 summer. The intent of this Fellowship Program is to honor Liz’s passion for supporting law students as they learn to advocate effectively for immigrant children and families. The Fellowship Program will enable fellows to spend 10 weeks training to zealously advocate for children, and to carry on Liz’s vision of honoring the child’s wishes through careful, strategic advocacy. The Fellows will serve as Child Advocates for individual children, and will also conduct legal research and writing, under the guidance of Young Center staff within the Child Advocate Program. The Fellows will also engage in policy advocacy through ongoing initiatives at the Young Center under the supervision of the Policy Program. Fellows will be based in New York City and will be invited to spend one week of the Fellowship Program in the Young Center’s Harlingen office to understand how immigration patterns, enforcement, and advocacy play out on the ground along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Elizabeth Frankel Advisory Committee, comprised of Liz’s family, friends, colleagues, and Young Center staff, advises the Young Center regarding the operation of the Fellowship Program.
Fellows will receive a stipend of $10,000 for 10 weeks (40 hours a week). The Fellowship Program will run from June to August 2022, with some flexibility as to individual start and end dates.
The program is open to law students who are rising 2L’s or 3L’s. Preferred qualifications: lived experience/knowledge that lends insight into supporting immigrant children and their families, and bilingual in Spanish and English (oral and written). Additional consideration will be given to law students who come from backgrounds/circumstances which prevent them from engaging in pro bono work during the summer.
Application and Selection Procedures
Interested students should email the following materials to EFrankelFellowship@theyoungcenter.org:
· Cover letter
· Resume
· Personal statement (2 pages maximum) about the applicant’s relevant experience, interest, and future aspirations with respect to legal work with immigrants and children.
· Contact information for three references.
The final deadline to submit application materials is January 7, 2022.
Materials will be reviewed by the Fellowship Committee, and interviews with Young Center staff will take place in mid to late January 2022. The Young Center anticipates making offers to potential fellows in late January/early February 2022.
If you have any questions, please contact Mari Dorn-Lopez (MDornLopez@theyoungcenter.org).