Student interns, fellows, and volunteers assist our staff in researching and developing advocacy strategies to address systemic issues in our county, state, and federal court systems.
Students are key members of our team. We have undergraduates, law students, social work interns, and graduate student fellows, as well as student members of our Collaboration for Justice chapters at local law schools, who work closely with our talented staff, committed board and committee members, and blue ribbon task forces to directly influence decisions by major policy makers at the city, county, and state level. Any student, like any other member of the public, is likewise welcome to attend a meeting of or join an advisory committee.
Fellowship Programs
The Appleseed Network Fellowship was founded in 2020 by an initial donation from John and Christie Johnson. Appleseed Network Fellows connect Appleseed Centers around the country in the National Appleseed Network by working on projects that are both local and national in scope—accessing resources and expertise from other Centers and sharing research and strategies.
Appleseed Network Work Groups are the very heart of the Network, but often lack the staffing necessary to help identify issues, guide projects, or develop advocacy agendas. Our Appleseed Network Fellows work with the Collaboration for Justice’s Access to Justice Committee to design and facilitate projects ideal for replication with other Appleseed Centers across the country.
Current Appleseed Network Fellows:
- Kaitlyn Filip is a JD-PhD student in Communication Studies: Rhetoric and Public Culture at Northwestern University, where her work focuses on how access to court data informs and shapes access to justice. Her research has appeared in the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy and is forthcoming in the New Mexico Law Review and the Loyola Journal of Regulatory Compliance. As an Appleseed Network/Collaboration for Justice Fellow, Kaitlyn was the lead researcher and author of our report, “Solutions Rather Than Obstacles” – An Evaluation of the Cook County Domestic Relations Hearing Officer Program and her current projects involve the Domestic Relations and the Domestic Violence Divisions.
- Maya Simkin (they/them) is a recent graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law. They have a background in farming and permaculture, and love studying Jewish liturgy and other radical texts. Maya is committed to abolition and is interested in learning how efforts in public interest law can contribute to liberation. There are lots of damsons to pick, pit, and preserve into compote this week and Maya continues to be impressed by the small fruit’s magic blues and purples, and even greens.
former Appleseed Network Fellows:
- Gabriella Kirk, PhD (2020)
- Justin Chae, JD (2020)
Since 1997, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers have worked as the Collaboration for Justice—partnered together to investigate and propose solutions to systemic injustices in our courts. The Jill Dupont Memorial Fellowship of the Collaboration for Justice is a renewal of our shared legacy. For nearly three decades, Jill Dupont taught, researched and wrote about American and African American History at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, the University of North Texas in Denton, and the University of Chicago, where she earned her Ph.D. Dr. Dupont authored numerous articles for academic publications, held important positions on college and community boards and committees, and won prestigious awards from schools and students, including St. Scholastica’s 2017 Inclusive Excellence Award, given to the faculty or staff who best advanced that principle. Despite her many accomplishments, what mattered most to Jill was her classroom instruction and interaction. Her students at St. Scholastica rewarded that effort in 2013 by selecting her for the Tassie McNamara Award, the highest honor given by the school’s student body.
Jill passed away recently after a long battle with breast cancer. Her devotion to research into social justice issues and her love of teaching makes her a particularly meaningful namesake of a Fellowship for the Collaboration for Justice which prides itself on research-oriented approaches to systemic change and our commitment to student interns as the future of systemic reform.
Current Jill Dupont Memorial Fellow:
- Jennifer Won Young Lee is our first Jill Dupont Memorial Fellow. Jennifer assists in our court-watching efforts and around programs that focus on the quality and independence of immigration and administrative law judges. Jennifer assists in our court-watching efforts and around programs that focus on the quality and independence of immigration and administrative law judges.
In 2023, Illinois will become the most important battleground in the national movement to end wealth-based pretrial incarceration. In January 2021, after a 5-year fight that engaged thousands of people and dozens of organizations, the Coalition to End Money Bond and Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice (INPJ) successfully passed the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), passed as part of HB 3653, which end money bail and strictly limits the conditions under which judges can impose pretrial incarceration. As part of implementation efforts, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts has a one-year policy fellowship to assist with implementation efforts for law across the state. The Fellow, funded through a partnership between the INPJ and Arnold Ventures, helps analyze data and legislation, participates in working groups at the state and local levels to help court stakeholders, and helps engage community groups, government stakeholders, legislators, and other audiences to effectively implement the law and reduce pretrial incarceration.
Former Pretrial Justice Fellow:
- Kareem Butler (2022-2023)
For questions about internships, fellowships, or other forms of student involvement, please send an email to caffj@chicagoappleseed.org.