H M
- Research Program Mentor
JD at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Expertise
public interest/social justice, education, criminal law, environmental issues, First Amendment law, critical race studies, gender studies, disability, or anything law/policy
Bio
I'm an experienced mentor and researcher with a background in law, policy, and public interest/social activism. I am especially interested in education law, critical race theory, gender studies, and public policy. I recently graduated from UCLA School of Law, where I specialized in Public Interest Law and Policy and Critical Race Studies. As a law student, I published research on restorative justice in schools and anti-LGBTQ+ book bans. For undergrad, I attended Princeton University, where I majored in Anthropology and minored in Environmental Studies. There, I did research based in Southeast Alaska about the attacks on our oldest and largest national forest and how these attacks affected indigenous land rights. Outside of law and policy, I'm a huge fan of sports. I played flag football at both UCLA and Princeton, and I also have played basketball for most of my life. I love to hike, spend time outdoors, and read as well.Project ideas
Research Paper on How Schools Have Criminalized Students
When students misbehave in school, they are often suspended, expelled, or otherwise removed from the classroom. This paper would review literature from law, policy, psychology, and sociology to consider the effects of criminalization in schools on student outcomes. This project will allow students to learn more about interdisciplinary issues in the social sciences and could be published in an academic journal and/or developed into an opinion article to reach the broader public.
Drafting a Policy White Paper
In high school, many students learn to write research papers, argumentative essays, and other long and intensive projects, but their work is rarely shared beyond the classroom. In this project, choose a policy issue of your choice (environment, immigration, international policy, human rights) to write a policy white paper on. After writing the paper, students can share their work with local nonprofits working on the issues they wrote about, creating connections for future internship opportunities or connections with relevant nonprofits.
Write a Personal Essay About the Environment
Spending time outdoors and in nature can be restorative, relaxing, and meaningful. At the same time, our environment is constantly threatened by climate change, resource extraction, and overconsumption. In this project, students will write a personal narrative essay that could be published in a newspaper or journal, while both reflecting on their relationship with nature and learning more about environmental degradation and threats to natural beauty.