The John Paul Stevens Foundation has chosen four Indiana University Maurer School of Law students to serve as 2024 Stevens Fellows this summer. The Foundation made the announcement today (June 26).
Selection as a Stevens Fellow comes with $12,000—half from the Foundation, half from the Law School—to help offset the cost of unpaid public interest work over the summer. This year’s Stevens Fellows are Kristal Davis ’25, from Lansing, Michigan; Allegra Maldonado ’25, from Indianapolis; James Monroe ’25, from Naperville, Illinois; and Niara Wakaba ’26, from Louisville.
“The Law School is proud to have four of our students selected as 2024 Stevens Fellows,” said Indiana Law Dean Christiana Ochoa. “These fellowships allow students to perform public interest work that is vital to so many across the country. We continue to be inspired by the incredible work our students do every year.”
Davis is spending the summer with the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, Maldonado is with the U.S. Department of Labor in Chicago, Monroe is also in Chicago, working for the Cook County Public Defender, and Wakaba is serving with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky in her native Louisville.
Named after the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice, the John Paul Stevens Foundation is dedicated to promoting public interest and social justice values in the next generation of American lawyers. Through its unique fellowship program, the Foundation supports law students who spend the summer working in unpaid public interest law internships. The Fellowship Program reflects Justice Stevens’ deep belief that a dynamic and effective justice system depends on a cadre of trained and committed lawyers committed to public interest work.
According to the Foundation, approximately 74 percent of Stevens Fellows go on to work in public interest and social justice positions, including public defenders, civil rights attorneys, and advocates for children, youth, survivors of violence, families, immigrants, seniors, and others. Past Stevens Fellows now work in local, state, and federal government on housing, health care, child welfare, community services, and racial justice.
The Maurer School of Law is one of 38 law schools—and the only one in Indiana—that participates in the Stevens Fellowship program.