A new program at Cincinnati Public Schools is preparing girls to enter the legal field.
Girls in Law was launched this year by Ohio First District Judge Marilyn Zayas, CPS Student Engagement Specialist Shelly Conrad, and Withrow High School senior Sanaa May to educate girls interested in pursuing a career as a lawyer or judge.
The program is an offshoot of CPS' Girls to Women Leadership Collaborative, which introduces girls in grades 4-12 to leadership and career opportunities. Girls in Law is more targeted and aims to make a long-term impact on the entire legal system.
Judge Zayas made history in 2016 as the first Latina elected to the Court of Appeals in Ohio. During the Girls in Law's first official meeting at the KMK law firm office Thursday morning, Zayas shared how she went from a child of Puerto Rican migrants in New York City to an attorney and later a judge. She says when she first entered the field, she felt out of place and lacked confidence. It took a supportive judge to push her beyond what she thought was possible.
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"Never did I dream that I would be an attorney and that I would be an elected judge. And even three years before I ran, I had a sitting judge who singled me out and said, 'Marilyn, I want you to run. You would be an excellent judge,' and there was a voice in my head that kept saying 'Who would vote for me?’ “ Zayas said. "I don't want other young people to think the way that I thought."
With the support of Zayas, Sanaa May says she's already feeling more confident in her own abilities. May wants to be a lawyer one day but more than that, she wants to see more women of color in legal offices. She says the perspective she and others like her can bring to the field will have an invaluable impact on the legal system as a whole.
"Our feelings, our thoughts, our political thoughts, and our emotional thoughts are undermined and I feel as though the importance of understanding government earlier to these minority women, these minority students, will help them understand the influence of government and how they should advocate themselves and what they should educate themselves on," May said.
The program plans to help girls get their foot in the door by introducing them to working professionals in the legal world so they can start to build connections that can lead to opportunities like internships and jobs.
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The idea is to have more women of color represented in the space and make it easier for them to enter a streamlined career path, but ultimately Zayas says exposing girls to an area they were previously not familiar with will benefit them and their communities no matter what career they choose to pursue.
"The more people that understand the role of government and have a healthy respect, and healthy understanding and wanting to belong, it benefits the entire community," Zayas said.
Girls in Law currently has 16 students participating in its pilot year, but organizers say the program is open to students in every CPS school and they plan to expand the program each year.
