{"id":23204,"date":"2017-05-09T08:50:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T12:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/?p=23204"},"modified":"2017-05-09T08:50:04","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T12:50:04","slug":"finding-voice-social-justice-advocate-kiera-forlenza-wants-stand-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/index.php\/2017\/05\/09\/finding-voice-social-justice-advocate-kiera-forlenza-wants-stand-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding her voice: social justice advocate Kiera Forlenza wants to stand up for children"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Student<\/a>
Student Kiera Forlenza is a social justice advocate focused on helping children.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Student Kiera Forlenza is a social justice advocate focused on helping children.<\/p>\n

Second-year law student Kiera Forlenza admits that she wasn\u2019t sure law school was for her during her first year of studying the fundamentals, buried in books. Forlenza came to law school with the purpose of becoming an advocate for children. It was not until she delved into coursework in Stetson\u2019s Social Justice Advocacy (SJA) Concentration Program <\/a>under the mentorship of Professor Judith Scully that Forlenza began to define herself as an advocate in law school.<\/p>\n

Today, Forlenza is student president of the Dream Defenders organization. The busy mother and law student\u00a0is a Guardian ad Litem and volunteers as a classroom assistant in Sarasota, where she plans to work with the Public Defender\u2019s Office this summer.\u00a0Forlenza says that\u00a0Stetson\u2019s SJA concentration program transformed her opinion of law school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program is trying to instill a different type of lawyering,\u201d says Forlenza. \u201cStudents learn how to think outside the box to effect change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stetson\u2019s first full graduating class in the Social Justice Advocacy Concentration Program was in 2014. Professor Scully\u00a0explains that the program appeals to any student interested in civil rights, human rights, criminal law, or any aspect of the law that needs to be reformed, embellished, or abolished in order to achieve equity and\/or justice.<\/p>\n

Forlenza is currently wrapping up the first semester of her second year at Stetson. She has already completed more than 200 pro bono hours. She says she is enrolled in SJA electives that are helping her hone her voice as an advocate.<\/p>\n

Forlenza explains that the program is directing her passion for juvenile justice through careful course selection, independent study, colleagueship with other SJA students and mentoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuveniles are the most defenseless of our population,\u201d says Forlenza. \u201cThey can easily get lost in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many juveniles are transferred into the adult court system by prosecutors using their direct file powers. This prosecutorial power is currently being challenged by proposed legislation in \u00a0Florida because \u00a0in the past 6 years nearly 10,000 juveniles are transferred in to the adult criminal legal system, the highest number of juvenile transfers reported by any state.\u00a0 Florida \u00a0is one of the only states that uses direct file as its primary tool of prosecuting juveniles as adults.\u00a0 If convicted as adults, juveniles are branded as felons for life which greatly impacts their ability to obtain employment, housing and even financial aid for higher education, says Forlenza.<\/p>\n

Professor Scully describes how the Social Justice Advocacy and the Law course, offered for the first time at Stetson in the spring 2017 semester, helps students\u00a0 understand the wide variety of ways that they can use their legal skills to empower their clients and serve their communities. \u00a0Through this course, students are introduced to different forms of lawyering other than the traditional \u201cone client, one lawyer\u201d model.\u00a0 In the SJA and the Law course, students learn how lawyers can work in tandem with policymakers; as rebellious lawyers who collaborate with their clients; and as holistic lawyers who work as a team with social workers, immigration lawyers, civil rights lawyers, housing and social security lawyers to ensure the success of their clients not just in their cases but in their lives.\u00a0 \u00a0Some SJA lawyers also facilitate leadership of community members so that they can solve their own problems in the future.\u00a0 The semester ends with a focus on self-care so that students are prepared to manage the second-hand trauma that lawyers often face when dealing with people in extreme crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents learn how to effectuate change not just in the courtroom but also in the community,\u201d says Professor Scully, who introduces students to \u00a0models of holistic lawyering being developed around the country by non-traditional lawyers with the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild, \u00a0lawyers working in nonprofit organizations and law school clinics, and with the public defender\u2019s office in the Bronx, New York.\u00a0\u00a0 A series of ten practicing attorneys joined the SJA and the Law course this semester through video Skyping, allowing students to hear a wide variety of SJA voices and perspectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my hope that students will leave this course knowing that one lawyer empowering others can make fundamental change in the legal system and that a small group of determined lawyers working in the community can change the course of history \u201c says Scully.<\/p>\n

She is \u00a0proud of \u00a0Stetson\u2019s Social Justice Advocacy Concentration\u00a0Program alumni who are working in immigration law, veterans law, juvenile law, with public defender offices and with policymakers in the legislature.\u00a0 \u201cOur students are making an impact in Florida, New York, Texas and Georgia.\u00a0 A decade from now SJA alumni from Stetson will be leaders all across this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an undergraduate, Forlenza says she focused on paralegal studies and wanted to work in the education field. Her goal evolved into a desire to create change in the education system. As a law student in the SJA program at Stetson, Forlenza says she still wants to make a difference in the lives of children as a social justice lawyer, and now she sees some different paths to that goal. She says that the program has helped her develop professionally, discovering where she personally wants to be and how to get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial justice advocates are not just litigators strictly working in courtrooms,\u201d says Forlenza. \u201cThey are in the community doing all types of work that will legally empower and assist their clients in economically, politically, and socially developing their communities .\u201d<\/p>\n

She says her goal is to work in juvenile criminal defense, and to be an advocate with a holistic focus on her clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job as future attorneys is to help our clients get what they need,\u201d Forlenza says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student Kiera Forlenza is a social justice advocate focused on helping children. Second-year law student Kiera Forlenza admits that she wasn\u2019t sure law school was for her during her first year of studying the fundamentals, buried in books. Forlenza came to law school with the purpose of becoming an advocate for children. 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