Message from the Young Lawyers Division Chair
By Yaida O. Ford

One of my goals as YLD chair is to make mentorship part of our focus this year.  Not only mentorship for law students, but mentorship for the District’s youth who often lack the resources and guidance needed to succeed.  To that end, YLD partnered with the Thurgood Marshall Academy (TMA) to help recruit quality African-American mentors and tutors for their mentoring and tutoring programs.  TMA is the only law-related public charter school in the District and is named after the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.  TMA was founded by Georgetown alumni and thus, Georgetown serves as a pipeline for many of the tutors and mentors that serve TMA students. 

Located in Ward 8, TMA’s student population comes from one of the most economically distressed parts of the city.  Fortunately, TMA is a shining light boasting one hundred percent college admission rates for its students.  While TMA is a law-themed school, named after a legal giant, with an almost one hundred percent black student population, few of the mentors and tutors at TMA are African-Americans and even fewer have legal backgrounds.  This fact created an opportunity for YLD to step up and get involved.  I partnered with Scott Guggenheimer of TMA and we began to appeal to YLD members to serve as mentors.  After a few YLD postings on the listserv, several members inquired about how to participate. 

Today, at least three YLD members are yearlong mentors at TMA and at least one member served as a tutor in the after school program.  The two programs are drastically different as far as commitment and responsibilities.  Tutors come in and assist students during homework hour.  There is no commitment to a particular student.  They help the students who show up.  Mentors, however, commit to mentoring one student for the entire school year.  TMA organizes one weekend outing per month and provides food and transportation for all mentors and mentees.  At the group outings, mentors get to mingle with each other and get to meet other students aside from their mentee.  The mentors and the mentees then agree to spend one day per month with each other outside of the group outings.  I and two of my YLD members, Karen Todd and Darryl Maxwell, have been mentoring this year.

Karen and Darryl are particularly happy with their experiences so far.  When asked if she would recommend other lawyers to mentor with TMA, Karen said, “I would totally recommend other lawyers to participate. The program takes teenagers living in low to moderate income communities and tries to ensure that they will graduate from high school and attend college. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that, even if it were in a small way?”  Darryl said that seeing YLD’s announcements on the listserv calling for black men made him answer the call.  “I thought it would be a great learning experience for me and was excited to possibly have an influence on a teenager that was excited about the program as well.”

YLD is proud to be fulfilling the primary part of the Houstonian legacy which involves reaching into the more vulnerable parts of the community that we often forget about because we do not live side by side with our poorer neighbors.  However, TMA reminds us that the effects of poverty for young black men and women can be reversed if those who are more privileged help.  Thankfully, Georgetown has a solid supply of students and alumni who care about youth who come from a world that may be different from their own.  YLD has now added a few black lawyers who decided to adjust their lives to be a part of something of lasting value - mentorship.

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