2025 Fellows

This summer ten Sorensen Center Fellows used their skills and experience to defend due process, to protect immigrants, to advocate for fair housing, to counsel juveniles and justice-involved individuals, and to envision a new framework for worker-owned cooperatives in the United States.

Fellows worked on the frontlines representing and supporting individual clients, developed new tools to provide broader community support, and conducted legal and policy research to support continued innovation.

We are grateful to the organizations whose partnership helped to enable this work:

Bronx Legal Services
CARECEN (Central American Refugee Center)
UnLocal
Pangea Legal Services
Neighborhood Defenders Service of Harlem
New York County Defenders Service
Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice
Brooklyn Defenders Service
New York Legal Assistance Group, Public Housing Justice Project
Legacoop (Italy)
Mondragon University (Spain)

Alessandra Talabong

Fellow at New York Legal Assistance Group, Public Housing Justice Project

“I am inspired and invigorated by housing justice work, and I am so grateful to have been part of such an excellent team that continues to fight for the stability of their clients. I’m eager to continue growing as an advocate who uplifts communities and advances lasting systemic change in housing."

Isabella Lajara

Fellow at CARECEN (Central American Refugee Center

“Due process is supposed to be a fundamental right guaranteed to both citizens and non-citizens, but this summer I’ve seen the inequities in how due process is actually applied. Through my internship at CARECEN I’ve helped a client win asylum without having to testify and retraumatize themselves. I have advocated before the immigration judge as to why people’s cases shouldn’t be closed and ensured they were not made deportable.”

Henry Burg

Fellow at Pangea Legal Services

“This summer I created community guides to share with community members whose loved ones were abducted by ICE. These guides are direct tools to combat systems that actively work to intimidate people into submission and isolation. Through this work, we aimed to shift these moments of crisis into spaces where communities could organize, support one another, and build power together."

Cierra King

Fellow at New York County Defenders Service

“The harsh realities of the criminal legal system always knock me speechless. We have a system that supposedly addresses crime, punishes those who are dangers to society. Yet the only people it continues to punish are those who are poor and black/brown. We punish those who are victims of their circumstances. This is the fight I’m joining. Ensuring that marginalized and targeted communities are treated with dignity and their rights are protected if charged with a crime.”

Josiah Ramesar

Fellow at Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice

“Our Family Court system is broken from what I have observed, and I have started my research to see how other countries' Family Courts are run. There needs to be serious and intentional reform that has the goal of bringing families together, rather than tearing them apart. I have hope that through my research this summer and future work, I will be able to find a system that works better than the one we have now.”

Catherine Murcek

Research Fellow at Mondragon University (Spain) and Legacoop (Italy)

“In this polarized world, worker cooperatives are a crucial tool for counteracting some of the harms of our current system and helping to build up a new solidarity economy. I am inspired to dedicate what time and energy I can to the cooperative movement in service to social and economic justice.”

Jonathan Guadian

Fellow at Neighborhood Defenders Service of Harlem

“I have always believed that my ability to build community with people would make me a better advocate because it would make it easier to earn a person’s trust, which is always crucial for effective lawyering. The difference between a good attorney and a client-centered attorney is how well a person can decide based on how well they can relate to a person’s lived experiences. I know that I couldn’t reach that level of relationship without having the ability to build community with my client.”

Karely Amaya Rios

Fellow at UnLocal

“Immigrants, many of whom do not speak English or understand the U.S. legal system are forced to navigate complex legal proceedings without representation. Children as young as five are forced to represent themselves in deportation hearings. To me, the right to counsel is more than a legal formality, it is a declaration of human dignity. No person should have to stand alone against the power of the state.”

Farid Ahmad

Fellow at Bronx Legal Services Tenants Rights Coalition

“Impoverished communities, people of color, and other marginalized groups who live in material precarity not only have to worry about shelter, food, income, and the livelihoods of their families, but are affected socially, emotionally, and psychologically. They are expected to earn our compassion and earn assistance. They don’t have to earn anything, they already deserve it.”

Melissa Ramos-Lemos 

Brooklyn Defender Services 

"In the legal field it is easy to get involved in cases while forgetting about the humanity of the person we are representing. In fact, the immigration system works to dehumanize immigrants and often puts lawyers in a position where they have to focus on the intricacies of the law in order to best represent their clients. This experience motivated me to use my legal education to work towards a society with broader guaranteed protections for noncitizens and to prevent the ongoing violation of their basic human rights while always making space to acknowledge the humanity of each and every client I will represent.”