Public Interest Fellowship Program
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The Walter Lucas Public Interest Fellowship Program at Villanova University School of Law provides financial support to students who commit their summers to public service legal work. Many law students, dedicated to helping the less fortunate, are limited by financial constraints. Similarly, public interest legal organizations often cannot afford to hire much needed summer interns. Through fundraising, PIFP provides summer fellowships to Villanova Law students, who in turn aid the larger community by working with various public interest organizations and their clients.
An entirely student-run organization, PIFP funds student fellowships through a variety of creative endeavors. To date, PIFP has raised over $700,000 and has awarded over 160 summer fellowships. The highlight of PIFP’s fundraising efforts is the annual Spring Auction, held at Villanova Law School and featuring items solicited by students and faculty throughout the school year. The first auction, held in April 1998, raised $19,000 and funded six summer fellowships. The sixteenth annual auction will be held on the evening of Friday, March 15, 2013 at Villanova Law School.
In 2012 PIFP generated over $44,000, providing fourteen students with $4,500 summer fellowships. Prior fellowship recipients have worked at public interest organizations throughout the world, including the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, the United Nations Development Program in Ghana, Greater Boston Legal Services, the Defender Association of Philadelphia, the California Appellate Project, the National Center for Victims of Crime, the Pennsylvania Health Law Project, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Humane Society of the United States.
In addition, 2012 marked the seventh year in a row that PIFP provided $12,000 to fund its Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP). LRAP provides a $12,000 award, paid over three years, to a recent graduate committed to working for a public interest organization or governmental agency.
