Dean Kevin R. Johnson cordially invites you the 31st Annual Recognition Celebration for Scholarship Donors and Recipients and the William and Sally Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award honoring Professor Amagda Pérez.
Amagda Pérez, recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Teaching Award, has been committed to improving legal access for rural immigrant communities since childhood. Early on, Ms. Pérez realized the legal system afforded no cognizable assistance for those impeded by language and cultural barriers. This realization, coupled with Ms. Pérez's bicultural and bilingual background, spawned a career of serving the legal needs of marginalized immigrant communities.
The impetus of Ms. Pérez's legal career can be traced to her employment as a youth in a pear packing shed in Kelseyville, CA. Due to her language abilities and sensitivities to differing cultural backgrounds, she was often asked for help filling out forms and legalization applications. Ms. Pérez knew that if she did not fill the gap, the gap would remain as there were no bilingual resources for this rural community. When asked where and how it all began, Ms. Pérez humbly suggests it was just a need that was not being filled that she thought she could fill.
Inspired to do more, Pérez went on to UC Davis as an undergraduate, and then on to King Hall, where she got involved with the Immigration Law Clinic in her second semester, and quickly felt at home. As a student, she served as co-chair of La Raza Law Students Association, worked in the clinic, and was honored with the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service and Leadership Award and the Lorenzo Patiño Leadership and Community Service Award. Her academic achievements foreshadowed the legal career committed to social justice that followed.
After graduating in 1991, she went to work for California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. focusing primarily on legalization, education, and labor cases. In 1994, she joined the King Hall faculty in the Immigration Law Clinic, but continued her work with CRLA Inc. She moved to California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation in 1996, where she is now the executive director. She was named the director of the Immigration Clinic in 2007.
Pérez finds it "extremely rewarding" to help students progress through their work at the clinic, and is deeply humbled by her selection as the Distinguished Teaching Award recipient. "This award is recognition of King Hall students' commitment to social justice," she said. "For them to want the work of the Immigration Clinic to be recognized in this way is a testament to what we hold as valuable, and that is to be able to provide high quality legal services to those who would otherwise be unrepresented."
Reception at 6:00 p.m.; dinner and program following at 7:00 p.m.
Kindly RSVP by March 2, 2010 using the following links:
General Public - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CSH6VCW
Students - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/56YNRZS
Faculty - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5P5N6RH
Staff - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/567BKHQ
Past recipients include:
1980 James E. Hogan
1981 Daniel J. Dykstra
1982 Daniel W. Fessler
1983 Richard C. Wydick
1984 Jean C. Love
1985 Friedrich K. Juenger
1986 Floyd F. Feeney
1987 Bruce A. Wolk
1988 Robert W. Hillman
1989 Edward J. Imwinkelried
1990 Edward H. Rabin
1991 Margaret Z. Johns
1992 Rex R. Perschbacher
1993 Kevin R. Johnson
1994 Joel C. Dobris
1995 Alan E. Brownstein
1996 Harrison C. Dunning
1997 Martha S. West
1998 Florian Bartosic
1999 John D. Ayer
2000 Diane Marie Amann
2001 James F. Smith
2002 Debra Lyn Bassett
2003 James E. Hogan
2004 John W. Poulos
2005 Millard A. Murphy
2006 Edward J. Imwinkelried
2007 Donna Shestowsky
2008 Floyd F. Feeney
2009 Jennifer M. Chacon
