Pipeline Initiatives
Schiff Hardin actively participates in various pipeline initiatives designed to encourage the next generation of legal professionals. These initiatives include:
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School's Corporate Internship Program
Schiff Hardin is an active participant in Cristo Rey Jesuit High School's Corporate Internship Program.
In order to make private, college-preparatory education affordable to at-risk young people from Pilsen, an economically challenged area of Chicago, Cristo Rey developed an innovative work-study program for high school students called the Corporate Internship Program (CIP), which combines two commonly used business concepts, employee leasing and job sharing. This initiative gives Cristo Rey students the means of financing their education — allowing them the chance to earn 65% of the cost of their education by working five full days each month in entry-level positions at corporations in downtown Chicago.
Our attorneys and senior staff also mentor these students to assist them in pursuing college degrees and professional careers.
For more information about Cristo Rey Jesuit High School's Corporate Internship Program, visit their Web site at http://www.cristorey.net/cwsp/become_sponsor.html.
EduSeed
Schiff Hardin is pleased to offer our support to EduSeed, an organization dedicated to promoting education, particularly among historically disadvantaged and under-served communities. EduSeed furthers the pursuit of higher education and life-long learning by using models of peer-mentorship and self-empowerment.
Our firm has assisted EduSeed by hosting, promoting and providing funding for the 10th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser for SisterMentors, an EduSeed project. Additionally we provide office space and other office resources to the staff of EduSeed.
Schiff Hardin counsel Montina M. Cole serves on the organization's board of directors.
More information on EduSeed can be found on the organization's Web site: http://www.eduseed.org/.
Justice Allen E. Broussard Scholarship Foundation
This San Francisco/Oakland area foundation is committed to the continued pursuit of the late California Supreme Court Justice Allen E. Broussard's lifelong desire to assist minorities in their pursuit of higher education, better job opportunities and careers in the legal profession.
Schiff Hardin is a sponsor of the Law Day student luncheon, which is coordinated by the foundation. The function of Law Day is to educate the public on our legal heritage and the role of law in a constitutional democracy. The highlight is always the student luncheon. Participating students include all the Alameda County Mock Trial Competition teams, high school civics students, and JusticeCorps/AmericaCorps college students.
For more information about the Allen E. Broussard Foundation, visit their Web site at http://www.broussard-scholarship.org/.
SisterMentors
Schiff Hardin is pleased to support SisterMentors — an organization that helps women of color to complete their dissertations and get their doctorates. The women in turn, while in the program, give back by mentoring disadvantaged girls of color in middle and high schools in the Washington, D.C. area, inspiring them to go to college. The women and girls are African-American, Latina, Asian-American and women and girls who are immigrants of color. In ten years, SisterMentors has helped 27 women of color to get doctorates, mentored more than 75 girls of color, and sent their first group of girls off to college in the fall of 2007.
SisterMentors is an EduSeed project. More information on SisterMentors can be found on their Web site: http://www.sistermentors.org/.
Thomas Kelly High School Debate Team
Schiff Hardin makes ongoing annual donations to the Thomas Kelly High School Debate Team to help support this Chicago public school, located in the diverse Brighton Park neighborhood on the city's southwest side. These donations help the school to field a debate squad that can continue to grow and compete with better-funded programs locally and nationally.
The Thomas Kelly High School Debate Team has achieved significant success and is considered among the leading Chicago-area high school debate programs. It also has received publicity from the WBEZ-FM (Chicago Public Radio) "Against All Odds" program and the Chicago Tribune. In fact, it was such media coverage that brought the squad to the attention of Ronald S. Safer, Schiff Hardin's Managing Partner, when he learned that the Kelly High School debaters had insufficient funding to travel and compete with other schools that were more fully financed.
In addition to donations, Schiff Hardin hosts an annual luncheon at our firm's Sears Tower headquarters in Chicago for the Thomas Kelly High School Debate team to honor their accomplishments and encourage the students to apply the debate skills they are learning to future higher education and career goals.
For more information about Thomas Kelly High School and the Debate Team, visit their Web site at http://www.kelly.cps.k12.il.us/.
