Requirements

Thomas More scholars and their faculty director collaboratively created the program requirements to help scholars prepare themselves for a career dedicated to public service law.

Thomas More Scholar Laurel Yecny teaching a high school class about discrimination law through the Thomas More-initiated Street Law program.

During law school, Thomas More Scholars must:

• Maintain the same minimum cumulative GPA required to maintain all other law school academic merit scholarships.
• Actively serve the law school student body or the Inland Northwest community by completing at least twenty hours each academic year in service to one or more student organizations or in general volunteer public service. Scholars are encouraged to work with a group that reflects their public service career goals and to strive for a leadership position within their selected group.
• For the 3L scholars, plan and execute public service programs for the law school community; for the 1L and 2L scholars, participate in these service projects. The primary 2009-10 and 2010-11 project is to coordinate teaching a Street Law curriculum to local high school students.

• Former Thomas More Scholar Darcie Magnuson with the guide-dog puppy she trained while a law student through her volunteer service with Guide Dogs for the Blind.

• Participate in at least one academic extracurricular activity per academic year, including, among other opportunities, Law Review, Journal of International Law, and various moot court and other student competitions.
• Complete a minimum of 240 hours of attorney-supervised pro bono legal work to provide experience in a field of law that the scholar wishes to pursue as a career.
• Restrict paid employment to working with traditionally disadvantaged people or with local, state, tribal, or national government.
• Take at least two of a list of classes with a substantive focus on traditionally disadvantaged groups and other underserved populations, depending on the scholar’s own interests and career goals.
• Attend potlucks, meetings, and leadership seminars sponsored by the program.
• Represent the Thomas More Scholarship Program at school-sponsored events.

Thomas More scholars graduating in 2013 or later are expected to perform at least three years of full-time public service work within the first five years following graduation. Public service work includes employment devoted to working for traditionally disadvantaged people, as well as employment for a local, state, tribal, or national government.

There also is an informal tradition that Thomas More graduates be available to discuss public service law with current Thomas More scholars seeking information, and that graduates donate to help sustain the program when they are financially capable of doing so.

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