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Program uses law to help students in underserved communities
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: July 27, 2018
Growing up on the west side of Akron, Imokhai Okolo learned early on what it means to struggle.
“My parents got a divorce when I was 9 and my mom essentially raised my brother and me on her own,” said Okolo. “My mom was a first-generation college graduate and she stressed how important it was for my brother and me to get a good education.”
While there were no lawyers in the family Okolo said he always had an interest in the law even though he wasn’t quite sure what a lawyer’s job entailed.
But then his principal at Litchfield Middle School told him about the Law and Leadership Institute (LLI), a statewide pipeline program, which provides legally-based academic instruction and leadership training to high school students from underserved communities across the state.
The LLI began in 2008 as a summer initiative of the Ohio Supreme Court with just 40 students in Cleveland and Columbus. Today there are over 200 high school students in the program at law schools in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and Akron, where it operates out of Akron Law.
“The Law and Leadership Institute reinforced my desire to be a lawyer because I learned what a lawyer actually does,” said Okolo, now a rising 2L at The University of Akron School of Law.
Sole practitioner Kandee Robinson serves as the Akron site administrator.
“The program seeks to provide students with the skills that will help them excel in high school and continue their education by going on to a good college,” said Robinson. “While we are very happy when students choose legal careers the real purpose of the Law and Leadership Institute is to help them be successful in whatever field they choose.”
“A lot of students from underrepresented socio-economic groups or ethnicities may know little about the legal system and what they do know may not be positive,” said Akron Law Dean Christopher J. Peters. “The Law and Leadership Institute gives them the chance to learn how the system works, opening up entirely new career possibilities.
“The program has shown signs of real success,” Peters said. “Even if students do not go into the law, they will graduate high school with improved skill sets that will allow them to be successful in college and throughout their lives.”
Students who apply to the Law and Leadership Institute are required to write an essay explaining why they want to join the program. Other factors taken into account when deciding whether to admit a student are academics, recommendations from teachers and extracurricular activities.
Students who are accepted begin in the summer when they are rising ninth or 10th graders depending upon which state site they attend.
“Our site in Akron and the one in Toledo begins when the students are rising 10th graders.
“The students will remain in the program until they graduate high school, but we continue to support them in their endeavors after they leave the program.”
The Summer Institute at Akron Law got underway on June 25 with 22 rising 10th graders who attend various Akron public high schools, including STEM, Akron Early College, Firestone and Buchtel.
“During the first year of the program, we use different areas of law to develop communication and writing skills,” said Robinson. “We will work on vocabulary, teach essay writing as well as teaching students how to use analysis and arguments in a debate.
“Our instructors are law students who create the lesson plans based on the curriculum set by the program,” she said. “The instructors are instrumental in the success of the program and the LLI students.
“The summer session is intense but the instruction does not end at the end of the summer,” said Robinson. “Students will attend classes at Akron Law during the academic school year.”
During the second year of the LLI program at Akron Law, Robinson said students focus on preparing to take the ACT or SAT exam and participate in what’s known as the Resilience Café, in which they select a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and use it as the basis to create a performance piece or a spoken word piece, such as a poem.
The students also do a legal internship at a local firm or legal department.
“Upon completion of the internships we hold a forum called Pancakes & Presentations at the law school where they discuss their experiences in front of their mentors and parents,” said Robinson.
Rising seniors are required to write an appellate brief and present oral arguments based on their briefs for the moot court competition, said Robinson.
“During the final two years, we take students on college tours, help them write personal statements for college applications and assist with college and financial aid applications,” she said.
The 2018 Summer Institute concludes tomorrow, when LLI students from around the state compete in the 2018 annual mock trial, moot court and Resilience Café competitions at the Ohio Supreme Court.
Robinson said last year about 99 percent of students in the Law and Leadership Institute in Akron graduated from high school.
“I really believe in this program,” said Robinson. “I take many weeks out of my practice to help run this program and I have seen so many personal successes since I began in my role three years ago.
“It has a life-changing effect on the students whose eyes are opened to possibilities they never even considered,” she said. “They learn and grow and their confidence rises.”
Okolo is among the many success stories.
After graduating from Firestone High School in 2013, he enrolled at Miami University, where he majored in social justice studies, with a focus in crime and law and participated in the school’s mock trial program.
“I developed my interest in mock trial when I was part of the Law and Leadership Institute and it stuck with me,” he said.
Okolo, 22, is currently a summer associate at Thompson Hine in Cleveland and he said he’s becoming very interested in litigation.
“I am not sure exactly what area of the law I will go into, but it is going to have something to do with litigation,” said Okolo.
“Law and Leadership has had a profound impact on my life. It heightened my passions for wanting to go into the legal profession and gave me the tools I needed to turn my dream into a reality,” he said.
Robinson said her involvement with the Law and Leadership Institute has reignited her excitement about being an attorney.
“I was losing some of my passion for the practice,” said Robinson. “But when I see the role the law is playing in transforming the lives of these students I remember why I became an attorney.
“It’s more than worth my investment.”