UCLA School of Law’s Law Fellows Program has received a boost in support from California ChangeLawyers for its recruiting and outreach efforts in California’s Central Valley.

For the seventh straight year, California ChangeLawyers, formerly known as the California Bar Foundation, has offered its largest award to support UCLA Law’s efforts to train high-potential undergraduate students from the diverse and underserved Central Valley to become more competitive law school applicants. The new grant is for $25,000.

Since its 2013 launch, UCLA Law’s Central Valley program has provided key resources to more than 180 students. Last year, 31 fellows were selected through a rigorous application process and participated in the program’s Saturday academies at UC Merced. The sessions offer law school‐level instruction and feature mock classes taught by law faculty members; panel discussions with practicing attorneys; workshops on law school admissions, personal statements, financial aid and networking skills; and an LSAT overview.

Leo Trujillo-Cox ’97, executive director of UCLA Law’s Academic Outreach Resource Center, runs the Law Fellows Program and its Central Valley Program.

“The ongoing support from California ChangeLawyers is vital to our work in opening the doors of legal education to Central Valley residents,” Trujillo-Cox says. “We are grateful for their partnership as we work with deserving undergraduates who often lack the access to and knowledge about the legal profession that the rest of us take for granted.”

Started in 1997, the UCLA Law Fellows Program is one of the nation’s most innovative pipeline-building initiatives in the law school arena. More than 1,700 people have participated in the program and about 650 of those fellows have either completed law school or are currently students at legal institutions nationwide.