NEWS RELEASE
September 25, 2006
Thomas Jefferson Students Named to National Positions in American Bar Association
Alyssa McCorkle, Steve Howland and Anna Romanskaya will Serve
SAN DIEGO – Three Thomas Jefferson School of Law students have been selected to serve in prestigious positions with the American Bar Association at the ABA’s National Convention in Hawaii.
Alyssa McCorkle was elected as a National Delegate to the ABA Law Students Division, just one of three law students in the country who will serve as national delegates. Steve Howland and Anna Romanskaya were named as Lieutenant Governors of the 9th Circuit of the Law Students Division, which includes Southern California and Hawaii law schools.
“We’ve put Thomas Jefferson on the map,” said McCorkle, a third-year student who sees the three positions as an effective way of not only representing the law school at the national level, but also giving law students a greater voice within the ABA. “I didn’t do it alone. Anna and Steve and I worked as a team.”
Thomas Jefferson is “known by the ABA as a highly participatory school,” said third year student Steve Howland. “We show up, and we work hard.”
Howland hopes to work hard lobbying for the Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP,) which he will have the opportunity to do in Sacramento. “This is the perfect opportunity,” said Howland. “I’ve studied political science and worked in political campaigns as well as interning with the Connecticut legislature.”
LRAP is also McCorkle’s top priority, and she’ll be lobbying on behalf of LRAP on Capitol Hill next April on “ABA Day” on the hill.
What motivates McCorkle is a concern that law students are graduating with too much debt – an average of $60-80 thousand in student loans to repay, which makes it difficult to make ends meet especially for positions in public law, such as prosecuting attorneys and public defenders.
“That could result in a shortage of quality people in the District Attorney’s and Public Defender’s offices,” McCorkle said.
Anna Romanskaya, also a third-year student, is excited about her appointment as a Lt. Governor because of her strong interest in the field of public law. “I am able to meet many like-minded people and help spread ideas and communication about what public interest is,” says Romanskaya, who the president of TJSL’s Public Interest Law Foundation chapter. “I feel like this is a perfect position for me because I really am a cheerleader for public interest and I love getting people involved.”