First-year Texas Law students were officially welcomed into the school’s vibrant public interest community last month during Change It Up! 2025: Texas Law’s Public Interest Orientation. Hosted by the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law and co-sponsored by the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center, the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, the Budd Innocence Center, the Capital Punishment Center, and the Career Services Office, the annual event introduces 1Ls to public interest opportunities, programs, faculty, and local attorneys who use the law to serve others.
This year’s program was organized by law students Liz Castillo ’26, Ariana Guerrero ’27, Noor Saleh ’26, and Grant Shellhouse ’26, who shared encouragement and resources for incoming students. The event also featured remarks from Justice Center Director Nicole Simmons and Dean Bobby Chesney, followed by small-group lunch discussions where students explored issue areas such as public defense, environmental justice, disability rights, and immigrant’s rights alongside faculty and local attorneys.
“Change It Up serves not just as a great opportunity to connect with other students and experienced faculty interested in the same issue areas but also an opportunity to explore other areas of public interest law,” said student organizer Liz Castillo ’26. “That exposure helps students build relationships and draw lessons and inspiration from outside their own areas of focus.”
An afternoon alumni panel, moderated by Rhiannon Hamam ’16, featured recent graduates working across a range of public interest fields. Panelists included Araceli Garcia ’24, Assistant Public Defender at the Atascosa Area Regional Public Defender Office; Jamie McClintock ’23, Associate Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center; Katherine Himaya Lewis ’24, Staff Attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma; and Danny Woodward ’23, Policy Attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project.
For many first-year students, the panel was a highlight of the day. “Change It Up! was a great experience, and it’s encouraging to see that the public interest community at Texas Law is so active,” said 1L Heaven Baylor. “My favorite part of the event was the alumni panel. Hearing from attorneys in various public interest roles was grounding and helped me start thinking about what my path after law school might look like.”
For student organizers, the event was also a meaningful opportunity to give back. “Change It Up! was a formative experience for me as a 1L. It shaped my imagination about what a public interest career path is and could look like,” said Grant Shellhouse ’26. “There’s such a robust, passionate, and warm public interest community here at Texas Law.”
The event concluded with a sense of connection and inspiration as attendees reflected on their shared commitment to using the law in service of others. For new 1Ls, Change It Up! offered not just an introduction to public interest work, but a first step into a community dedicated to advancing justice.
