1. PILA Student-Funded Fellowships Application Evaluation Criteria

A. Criteria for evaluating Student-Funded Fellowship applications are:

1. Commitment to public service; AND

2. Financial need; AND

3. How the position furthers the applicant’s career goals; AND

4. Completion of required Public Service and/or Pro Bono hours by the application deadline (35 hours for 2Ls and transfers, 1L and 2L years combined; 15 hours for 1Ls) and any hours completed beyond the requirement.

a. Public Service and Pro Bono hours are defined as follows:

    i.     Public Service Hours: Uncompensated hours during the academic year         

        (including fall, winter, and spring breaks) spent volunteering in non-profit or 

        governmental activities that directly benefit disadvantaged populations, the 

        environment, animals, or the broader community beyond the university,             

        including hours spent doing charitable work through a student organization.

1.     Examples of Hours That Qualify:

a.     Tutoring or mentoring disadvantaged populations.

b.     Volunteer work with city agencies or local non-profits other than UVA (e.g. trial maintenance for Charlottesville Parks and Recreation; volunteering at the Humane Society; building for Habitat for Humanity).

c.     Soliciting donations for a charitable cause or event where a majority of the net proceeds are donated to charity (e.g. raising money for natural disaster relief or disease research).

d.     Charitable or educational work through a student organization (e.g., teaching kids through Street Law, election monitoring through LawDems or Law Republicans).

e.     Organization and coordination of activities that qualify as pro bono or public service hours (e.g. organizing for Alternative Spring Break).

2.     Examples of Hours that DO NOT Qualify:

a.     Activities which primarily benefit law students or others in the UVA community (e.g. planning or attending student events, fundraising for an organization’s general fund, attending general meetings or social gatherings of student organizations).

b.     Partisan activities (e.g. canvassing for a candidate, fundraising for a political party, lobbying).

c.     Hours completed during the summer when school is not in session.

d.     Hours that are already counted as pro bono hours.

        ii.  Pro Bono Hours: work that qualifies under the Public Service Center's  

             definition of pro bono:

                1.  Law-related work;

                2.  Supervised by a licensed attorney or law school faculty member;

                3.  For a nonprofit organization, government office or agency, or private     

                     law firm providing pro bono services to under-represented people or     

                     groups;

                4.  Not for academic credit or financial compensation; and

                5.  Undertaken during the academic year.*

*Includes winter break and spring break projects.

 

B. Individuals who have not made a good faith effort to satisfy outstanding obligations to PILA may be deemed by the Board to be ineligible for a fellowship.

C. Number of public service and Pro bono hours will be used as criteria beginning in the Spring 2005 round of Student-Funded Fellowship disbursement. Approved: 11/29/2004.

D. Beginning with the Fall 2010 round of Student-Funded Fellowship applications, applicants will be required to have completed an increased number of public service and/or Pro bono hours by the time they apply. First-year applicants will be required to have completed 15 public service and/or Pro bono hours by the time they apply in the Spring semester round of disbursements. Second-year and transfer applicants will be required to have completed 35 hours (cumulative for first and second years of law school) of public service and/or Pro bono work by the time they apply in either the Fall or Spring semester rounds of disbursements. The Student-Funded Fellowship application should ask for a substantive description of how those public service and/or Pro bono hours were spent. Approved: 11/29/2004. Amended: 4/2010.

2.  Incomplete applications and missed interviews are subject to disqualification at the discretion of the PILA Board.  

3. PILA Student-Funded Fellowships Honor Pledge.

Student-Funded Fellowship recipients shall sign an Honor Pledge to:

A. Work at least 400 hours in a public interest position during the summer; AND

B. Abide by the relevant cap on earnings from public interest employment, and return any excess amount; AND

C. Complete a written evaluation of the position at the beginning of the next academic year; AND

D. Record the number of clients and/or cases that you work on over the summer and report that number to PILA’s disbursement director; AND

E. Do one of the following:

     

     1. Volunteer for PILA for at least 20 hours by the end of the following academic year (at  

     least 8 of which must be on the Auction; 1 hour on the Fall Book Sale; 1 hour on the Spring 

     Book Sale; and we strongly encourage you to do 2 hours for the Law School Foundation 

     Phone-a-thon on behalf of PILA); OR

     2. Serve on the PILA Board of Directors for the following academic year; OR

F. If a Student-Funded Fellowship recipient does not complete either (i) or (ii) in E above, the recipient must return the full amount of the fellowship before the last day in April.

4.  PILA encourages any graduate who received a Student-Funded Fellowship for his/her 1L or 2L summer, or both summers, to make a donation to PILA after graduating law school and working full-time.  PILA strongly encourages any graduate working in the private sector who received a Student-Funded Fellowship for his/her 1L or 2L summer, or both summers, to make a donation to PILA after graduating law school and working full-time.

5. Selection for Participation on Individual Alternative Spring Break Trips

In any given year, each of the Alternative Spring Break trips will be comprised of at least one “Captain,” and multiple “Participants.”  Trip Captains will be selected by the Alternative Spring Break Director pursuant to an application process.  Trip Captain selections will be made based on applicants’ demonstrated ability to organize groups and manage details, as well as their level of commitment to/passion for the Alternative Spring Break.  Participants (the number of which on any given trip will be determined by the host organization’s capacity) will be selected 2/3 by lottery and 1/3 by application.  The lottery for each trip will be performed FIRST, followed by selections made from the remaining unselected applicant pool.  Initial review and selection of participants unselected in the lottery will be made by the Alternative Spring Break Director, with final approval reserved for the PILA Board.  Criteria for participants chosen by application will be commitment to/passion for the particular Alternative Spring Break trip. Added 09/27/10.

Approved April 2010.