Tapping Into Community

For Forman, engaging with the New Haven community was a critical component in forming this pipeline program and he noted that he wished he had more opportunities to do so when he was a law student. 

“I often felt like I was somewhat disconnected from the New Haven community,” he said. “I was in the city, and I was around the city, but I wasn’t part of the city. I think one of the great things about this program is that it helps law students be connected to New Haven through their fellows.”

As part of the program, students serve as mentors to the fellows, offering both academic and emotional support. 

For some mentors, like third-year Law School student Artha Jonassaint, the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local community was a key driver for getting involved. Jonassaint learned about Access to Law School after looking for ways to connect with New Haven and its residents and was interested in working to repair their relationship with the University. 

“This was a great opportunity to bridge that gap and show people that we need each other and this is an iterative process. This space is special because we can encompass it, even if this isn’t our home,” she said. 

Second-year student and mentor Rodney Wells said the program serves as a way for him to fulfill his sense of duty to give back locally. 

“As a student at YLS, I think there is a clear obligation to give back to the community here,” he said, noting that it can sometimes be difficult for students to prioritize programs that don’t center around legal work. 

Students also have the chance to mentor budding law students through the Launchpad Scholars Program, the Law School’s other pipeline program supports participants in all aspects of the law school application process. 

According to Forman, most pre-law fellows in the program wish to pursue careers in public interest, government, or community lawyering. 

“A lot of the people that come into our program in some way feel like they were mis-served or underserved by the legal system, and they want to change that,” he said.

Wright has a strong desire to use the law to give back to her community, which she hopes to accomplish as a family law attorney. Her goal is to defend juvenile offenders or parents who have lost their children through the family court system. 

“My drive for wanting to be a family attorney is rooted in my family, so that people like my grandparents can have resources and know how to access the juvenile justice, family court, or prison systems without the system — like a social worker or a case manager,” said Wright, who was raised in part by her grandparents while her mother was incarcerated. 

In the early days of the program, Forman’s main objective was ensuring that the fellows were successfully supported through their law school applications. What he didn’t anticipate, however, was the ways in which the program would continue to serve them long after they left the Law School. 

“It’s an ever-growing community that is both time-consuming but also very rewarding to work with,” he said. To date, 45 fellows have gone through the program and 34 fellows have enrolled in law school. 

Christian Aviles ’26, who has experienced every aspect of the program as a member of the first cohort and then as a mentor, has benefited tremendously from this continued support. 

“Community is at the heart of the Access program, and I definitely felt that during my time in the program — albeit virtually — as well as during law school and my time as a mentor,” said Aviles, noting that his mentor not only helped him with his applications but was also a great support for him during law school and while taking the bar. He even surprised him with a celebratory gift card to his favorite restaurant after his first semester at Yale Law School. Though his law school days are behind him and he’s entered the professional legal world, Aviles still actively keeps in touch with his original mentor and continues to ask him for advice. 

Wells observed that these bonds really cement during the Saturday Academies, when fellows and mentors meet for the first time in person at the Law School for application prep and moral support. 

“It’s the first time you hear why everyone is in a room together, and I think that is by far one of the best parts of the program,” he said, noting that being able to bond together over the challenges of the law school application process and share their personal backgrounds creates closeness for the fellows. 

In addition to unyielding support from Forman and student mentors, fellows have noted the significance of their relationships with other members of the cohort. 

“I met lifelong friends through this program,” said third-year student Daniel Dunn, who, like Aviles, was also a fellow-turned-YLS mentor. “We still talk almost every day, and they’re on this journey along with me — they’re also currently in law school. Just to know that people who have come through this program are experiencing the same joys and struggles is helpful.” Dunn is one of seven fellows who is currently a 3L in law school. 

For fellows currently in law school — of which there are 18 — they’ve said this community of support sustains them through their toughest challenges. 

Karina Lopez, a member of Cohort 3 who is enrolled at Quinnipiac University School of Law, said she encountered many hurdles when starting law school. Being a full-time student with younger classmates, making financial sacrifices, and not having a caring community was almost too much for her to bear. But having the Access to Law School community behind her has given her the motivation she needed to keep going. 

“Access to Law has always been a constant for me,” said Lopez. “I knew that Professor Forman was one email away. I knew that my coach was one phone call away. And they were always checking on me. That’s really something that you can only appreciate if you’re struggling so much like I was.”

Ninety percent of graduates of the program have been accepted to law school, enrolling in schools both in and outside of Connecticut, including Yale; Quinnipiac; Fordham; Howard; Villanova; Vermont Law & Graduate School; Columbia; St. John’s; Western New England; Florida A&M; and the Universities of Connecticut and California, Berkeley. Since the program’s inception, 16 fellows have graduated from law school. 

“Once you’re a part of the program, you never get out — and that’s the beauty of it,” she said. “I made friends for life there. I know that I can reach out to any of the people I met there, because it’s a life connection.”