Feb. 7 2020, Rojas with donor Michael J. McDonald.
HARRISBURG (Feb. 10, 2020) — Nathalie Rojas, a third-year law student at Penn State University Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, was awarded the 2019 Pennsylvania Bar Foundation Joseph T. McDonald Memorial Scholarship.
Established in 2013, the scholarship annually provides $3,000 to a full-time, 3L Pennsylvania resident involved in the Penn State Dickinson Law trial advocacy program whose goal is to pursue trial advocacy after graduation.
Throughout law school, Rojas has taken courses and participated in activities to help prepare for her dream job of being a criminal defense attorney. She developed a course plan focusing on criminal procedure and trial and appellate advocacy, participated in and later coached moot court teams and sought internships that would enable her to experience different perspectives on trial advocacy.
At Penn State Dickinson School of Law, she is a member of the Dickinson Law Moot Court board and team and the Student Bar Association, a law school representative at James S. Bowman Inn of Court, and president and former vice president of Latinx Law Student Association. Rojas is also an academic success tutor for criminal procedure.
After graduation, Rojas plans on clerking at the Office of the Los Angeles County Public Defender where she intends on pursuing a full time attorney position. In addition, she was a judicial extern for Judge John E. Jones III of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania; a law clerk at Kaye, McLane, Bednarski & Litt LLP; a legal intern for the Federal Public Defender's Office, Middle District of Pennsylvania; and a legal intern for President Judge Richard A. Lewis of the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas.
Rojas received a B.A. in psychology from La Sierra University in 2016.
The Joseph T. McDonald Memorial Scholarship Fund is administered by the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. For more information on this and other scholarships, visit www.pabarfoundation.org.