Chancellor’s Scholars - Third & Fourth Year Scholars
Anne Bingert
Anne, a Denver native, graduated with a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Colorado State University. Between her sophomore and junior year, Anne took some time off from school to join AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (or NCCC). She spent ten months with a team of nine amazing people doing community service projects and providing disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A year later, Anne went back to New Orleans, again as an AmeriCorps volunteer, and spent the summer working with at risk youth. The communities Anne worked with and the dedication to public service AmeriCorps instills in its members has had a lasting impact on Anne’s commitment to social justice and policy reform.
The last two years before starting at the University of Denver, Anne had the opportunity to work with two organizations, Crossroads Safehouse, a domestic violence shelter in Fort Collins, and Colorado Legal Services in Denver, where she developed an appreciation for the power of and need for strong legal advocates in our communities.
Anne is excited to be beginning her first year of law school at University of Denver. Surrounded by friends and family, with the mountains nearby, she cannot think of a better city to be in.
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Kelson Bohnet
Kelson grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and graduated in three years from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science. Though he participated in brief community service endeavors during high school, it was at Vanderbilt that his passion for helping others truly blossomed. As an undergraduate, Kelson was involved as a site leader with Vanderbilt’s Alternative Spring Program and also tutored K-12 students in both English and Spanish. Additionally, he interned with the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, through which he was able to directly assist under-served populations such religious minorities, prisoners, and the GLBT community. Finally, Kelson also worked with six separate political campaigns so that he could work for larger policy changes on behalf of the people he served at the grassroots level.
After college, Kelson entered the Teach for America program and spent one year teaching 7th and 8th grade science in a rural, poverty-stricken area of Louisiana. The following summer, he was hired as a director at the Fund for the Public Interest office in Atlanta. During his seven-month tenure with the Fund, Kelson ran a political fundraising operation that raised over $100,000 for organizations like the Public Interest Research Group, Environment America, and the Human Rights Campaign. After completing his commitment as a fundraising director, he then worked for six months as an advanced ESL teacher for adult immigrants in the Atlanta area.
Kelson is currently living in Denver with his fiancée. He is also pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy, and would like to use both degrees to affect system-wide changes in order to benefit those less fortunate than himself.
Megan Embrey
Megan, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Richmond, in Richmond, Virginia with a B.A. in History and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and a minor in Criminal Justice. While in college, Megan participated in a diverse range of service and non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Circle K International and Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. For three years she served on the executive board of Women Involved in Living and Learning, a leadership and activist organization focusing on gender and diversity issues. She was a mentor for elementary-aged children at inner city schools in both Baton Rouge and Richmond, and coordinated the Richmond mentoring program.
While attending the University of Richmond, Megan studied abroad in China, Tibet and Australia. In China and Tibet she traveled as one of 30 scholars on an anthropology and archaeology delegation, conducting a sociological and anthropological survey of the peoples of China and Tibet and participating in an ongoing archaeological dig.
In Australia, Megan interned at a foster care placement agency interviewing potential foster parents, supervising disabled children in care, developing skills programs for children on the cusp of graduating from the system and attending Queensland Juvenile Court and family mediation sessions. It was this time in Australia which led Megan to apply to dual degree programs in law and social work.
Megan’s experience as a paralegal in New York City after graduation introduced her to a new passion involving immigration law. As a paralegal she assisted attorneys in pro-bono matters regarding asylum applications and citizenship applications based on the Violence Against Women Act.
Megan hopes to use her J.D. and MSW degrees to represent children in the foster care system and delinquency courts with a focus on graduation from care and alternatives to juvenile incarceration and to continue work in the field of immigration law.
Dan Graham
Dan grew up on a farm in rural Montana with lots of animals and five siblings. During junior high and high school, he played sports and enjoyed many outdoor activities such as fishing, hiking and skiing. He is excited to continue these activities in Colorado.
Dan has volunteered as a clerk in a used furniture store for low income people, as an elementary school reading tutor and as server at various soup kitchens in Montana and Colorado. However, his most formative experience was as a live-in volunteer at a shelter for refugees in El Paso, Texas. At the shelter, Dan learned a good deal about the daily struggles of refugees and also a little about the legal system through which they can gain asylum. During his time there, he helped various guests at the shelter find lawyers who could help them make a case for acquiring permanent status in the United States. His main interest in the law continues to revolve around asylum.
Evan Grimes
Evan grew up in rural Missouri and graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia with a Bachelors degree in Philosophy. After graduation, he moved to St. Louis and began working in residential settings assisting adults with developmental disabilities. After working for a couple of different agencies in Missouri, he moved to upstate New York and continued his work in the field, this time for an excellent agency in Troy, NY.
He stumbled into the field, so to speak, as no one was hiring Bachelors-level philosophers and the rent wasn’t paying itself. What began as a job quickly turned into a forum to actualize a passionate belief that everyone deserves a base level of respect, and that empathy is possible between very different people.
As Evan progressed through the field, he learned some of the successes and failures of different agencies, and was able to constantly evolve his model of service. He helped cultivate atmospheres of respect for individual autonomy and advocated alongside and on behalf of the clients he served in defense of their rights as adults. Evan is now pursuing a law degree and hopes to broaden his scope and help a wider range people defend and exercise their rights.
Jim Henderson
Jim grew up in Littleton, Colorado, and earned his BA from Life Pacific College in Los Angeles, California. As an undergraduate, Jim served as the Associated Student Body treasurer, taught geometry at a Chinese school, worked with youth at a camp in Croatia involving students from 17 countries, studied ancient Greek, and graduated magna cum laude. Following college, Jim served as an associate pastor for a church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado for five years, during which time he volunteered at Children’s Hospital in Denver, organized and led teams of students to Juarez, Mexico, where they performed service projects and distributed thousands of pounds of food, and was recognized by the Mayor of Littleton for service to the community.
After this, Jim earned an MA in International Relations from Yale University, with a concentration in International Security, Foreign Policy and Religion. While studying at Yale, he also received a Graduate Certificate in International Security Studies, completed the Policy Studies Program at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, served as a Teaching Fellow in the Political Science and International Studies Departments, and was awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. In addition, Jim spent a summer in Washington, D.C. working in the Office of Advocacy and Government Relations for World Vision, where he supported the organization’s political advisors.
Jim is an avid reader of history and runner with two marathons under his belt. He has been married for six years to his wonderful wife Fay, and the two are proud parents of a beagle named Lola. Jim is thrilled to be back in Colorado and is looking forward to studying International and Criminal Law at DU.
Jeremy Hildebrand
Jeremy took the path less traveled in finding his way to University of Denver Sturm College of Law and his interest in veterans’ rights and advocacy. A 2004 graduate of the University of Akron (Bachelor of Music), Jeremy spent the 2004-2005 school year as a graduate student at the University of Colorado-Boulder and freelancing as a classical musician in the Denver area. After achieving modest success in his musical career, Jeremy felt a strong calling to serve his country and enlisted in the U.S. Army during the summer of 2005. During his four years as an airborne infantryman, Jeremy endured many experiences which shaped his interest in advocating for our nation’s most recent veterans. Today he serves as the Mountain West Regional Commander of the War on Terrorism Veterans of America, Inc., a nonprofit group dedicated to veterans’ advocacy. In addition, Jeremy regularly counsels both active duty service-members and veterans regarding available benefits and services provided by the Department of Defense and the Veterans’ Administration. As a member of the U.S. Army Caisson Platoon, Jeremy participated in more than 500 full honors military funerals on horseback in Arlington National Cemetery. He also served as co-director of the U.S. Army Therapeutic Riding Program, a Department of Defense initiative that aimed to accelerate wounded Soldiers’ rehab through the use and benefit of the Army’s horses.
Alissa Mundt
Alissa Mundt grew up in the beautiful, green Northwest living in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2003 with a BA in International Political Economy. After graduation she joined Teach for America and moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where she taught 4th grade for 2 years. She fell in love with teaching and the constant humor provided by adolescents, but ready to leave the humid South, she migrated to Denver, CO where she taught 6th and 7th grade math for 3 years at Hill Campus of Arts and Sciences.
Finally at the end of her 5th year of teaching, she retired from DPS and took a year to travel and volunteer abroad. She spent 6 months traveling, learning Spanish and volunteering in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. In the Spring of 2009 she traveled to Granada, Nicaragua where she volunteered for 3 months tutoring 2nd graders in Spanish and math.
Alissa’s current legal interests include immigration and educational policy, as well as International Human Rights.
Julie Nichols
Julie is a Colorado native who graduated from Colorado College Magna Cum Laude with a History degree in 2005. In both high school and college, Julie volunteered with different programs working with children and young people with developmental disabilities. After college, she worked for two years in an affordable housing non-profit in Boulder, helping low-income families purchase homes.
In 2007, Julie moved to New York City and to complete a Masters degree in Social Work at Columbia University. During her time in NYC, she worked for the Legal Aid Society and for Court Appointed Special Advocates representing and counseling abused and neglected children. In 2008, she designed a peer-mentoring program in which young people in (or aged out of) the foster care system helped other children navigate the system. She completed an independent study with professors from Columbia School of Social Work and Columbia Law School analyzing children’s rights in the American legal system and suggesting court reform to facilitate children’s participation in their own cases. Julie plans on using her experience as a social worker and her law degree to address issues of children’s rights, both domestically and abroad, with a focus on increasing opportunities for children to participate in and educate adults about issues that concern them.
In addition to these academic pursuits, Julie loves to travel. She spent a month living in Guatemala teaching English to school children, volunteering at an orphanage, and translating for doctors. Prior to starting law school, she returned from a month traveling around Israel and Egypt and is already itching to leave the country again.
Catherine Peterson
Catherine was born and raised in Paris, France. She graduated from Calvin College in 2005 with Honors in Political Science, and minors in Spanish and Third World Development Studies. As an undergraduate, Catherine studied abroad in Tegucigalpa, Honduras focusing on issues of poverty and development. She travelled every summer to South America, where she volunteered with a local NGO working with street children in Caracas, Venezuela. She also had the opportunity to intern with the United Nations Development Programme in Tegucigalpa and contributed a research project on the state of urban poverty in Honduras.
Following graduation, Catherine moved to Chicago where she worked as a paralegal in a private law firm for 2 years. She then joined Northwestern University School of Law’s Center for International Human Rights as their executive assistant in 2007. During her time at the Center, Catherine worked closely with leading human rights attorneys and helped coordinate major conferences on issues of international human rights and international criminal law, including the topics of corporate human rights responsibility, the responsibility to protect principle, the International Criminal Court and atrocity crimes litigation.
While in Chicago, Catherine actively volunteered as a coach and mentor for at-risk youth. She also served as volunteer interpreter (French and Spanish) at the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture.
Catherine is pursuing a dual degree with the law school and the Graduate School of Social Work. She hopes to pursue a career in the field of international human rights advocating on behalf of marginalized and at-risk groups. Her areas of interest include international development, children’s rights, and human trafficking. In her free time, she enjoys running, travelling and photography.
Jenn Purrington
Jenn, originally from South Dakota, graduated from Winona State University in Minnesota with a degree in special education and a minor in gerontology. Throughout her undergraduate experience she worked with students with disabilities and older adults. She was an officer in several public service oriented clubs on campus and spent her free time volunteering at the local nursing home, habitat for humanity, and playing intramural sports. Jenn has spent the last three years teaching and volunteering. She participated in two Americorps programs, both focused on increasing literacy in schools. Each program, one in Northern California and the other in Boston, were extremely influential experiences. They led Jenn to realize her passion for public policy, especially in the area of education. Last year, she was given a special education teaching position in Minnesota. She realized then, the intense disparity America has within its educational system. She was working with students in suburban Minnesota who had more than enough resources, after coming from an experience of working with students with little to no resources, all within the same country.
Jenn hopes to use her law degree to be an advocate for people with disabilities and older adults. She also hopes to be involved in changing and developing new public policy around issues of education and immigration.
Katie Stevenson
Katie, a Portland native, studied at the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana, in Missoula, where she graduated with Honors in Political Science and Spanish and minored in Latin American Studies and International Development.
Katie’s interest in local community development commenced while she was in high school. She was able to expand this interest to a global level by volunteering with Amigos de las Américas, a non-religiously affiliated INGO. She lived with a host family of eight in Chiligatoro, Honduras, collaborating with community members on sustainable household development initiatives while immersing herself in the Latina culture. Once in college, Katie returned as a Project Supervisor for AMIGOS in Chinendega, Nicaragua, where she mentored ten volunteers through their summer experiences working to build sustainable, fuel-efficient stoves.
While in Missoula, Katie worked with local organizations and clubs that aligned with her interests in public service. She also spent a semester in Prague, Czech Republic, gaining a Certificate in Central European
Studies and expanding her interest in social justice.
Upon graduation, Katie participated in AmeriCorps VISTA. She lived on the Flathead Indian Reservation, now home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, working under the umbrella of Montana Legal Services. Employed by two organizations that offer services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, her responsibilities ranged from in-take and advocacy for shelter clients to behind-the-scenes grant writing and fundraising. Shortly after finishing her year of VISTA, she remained in the Flathead region working as a bilingual Math Education Tutor for children of migrant workers in the cherry orchards.
Katie is passionate about community development and social justice through public service, and excited about the prospects of empowering others by means of law. In her free time she loves to be active in the outdoors by cycling, hiking, and attempting to fly fish with her fiancée and beloved black lab.