Last year, 24 year old law student, Imelme Umana, took an internship at The Bronx Defenders, a non-profit organization of public defenders fighting for the rights of Bronxites.
But little did she know that she would eventually become the president of the Harvard Law Review—a title once held by former President Barack Obama, who in 1990 became the first black president of the prestigious journal which boasts the largest circulation for a legal journal in the world.
Born in Pennsylvania to Nigerian immigrants, her story is that of America, a nation of immigrants struggling to define and carve out their place in our country.
Unlike the vast majority of graduates of the nation’s top law schools, Ms. Umana says she has no interest in joining a high-paying corporate firm. Her dream for now is to become a public defender, a goal she set after an eye-opening internship last summer in the public defender’s office in the Bronx. She plans to work this summer with the public defender in Washington.
She may not be from The Bronx but it was here where Umana decided to become a public defender thanks to her internship at The Bronx Defenders.
