WMACCA, with initial grant support from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, created the Corporate Scholars Program in 2004 to provide summer internship experiences in the legal departments of prestigious local companies and organizations to students in the WMACCA service area. The Corporate Scholars Program is designed to give the students the opportunity to learn about and experience the various areas of legal advocacy and general corporate practice that in-house counsel handle, as well as the relationship between providing business and legal advice to clients in a variety of substantive areas.

The Corporate Scholars Program is a “diversity pipeline” program. WMACCA hopes to get applications from populations that may otherwise lack access to these opportunities. Diversity for this Program is used in its broadest sense, not simply to convey ideas about gender, race, ethnicity, etc., but also concepts of socio-economic background and the student's individual educational and career path. Furthermore, diversity means obtaining a pool of applicants who are reflective of the work force in general and the communities that lawyers serve. The Corporate Scholars Program is seeking students who have good grades, strong writing skils, previous work experience, and some professional maturity.

Six students participated in the Scholars Class of 2009 (pictured below, from top to bottom):
Kara Leibin, 2L from Catholic Law - interned at IBM
Sandina Mathieu, 2L from Georgetown Law - interned at Strayer University
Aaron Wong, 3L from American University Law - interned at Carey Transportation
Nancy Oyedele, 3L from University of Maryland Law - interned at Hughes Communications
Arushi Sharma, 2L from George Mason Law - interned at National Marine Manufacturers
Association.

Lindsay Naiman, 2L from William & Mary Law - interned at CSC (not pictured).

The Program is maintained by generous support from WMACCA, its sponsors, and individual and corporate donors. 

Information about the Program:

For students:

• General Posting
• FAQs About The Program and The Application Process
• 2010 Application Form

For prospective internship host organizations: 

• FAQs About The Program
• 2010 Host Agreement
  

To learn more about the creation of the Scholars Program, please click here for an article from Legal Times.

If you have questions about the program, please contact Frost Telegadas, WMACCA Regional Administrator, at Frost.Telegadas@WMACCA.com, or Ilene G. Reid, WMACCA Executive Director, at Ilene.Reid@WMACCA.com

Thank you for your interest.