Harjeen Zibari, a first year student at The University of Texas School of Law, is the 2018 recipient of the National Association of Women Judge’s Access to Justice Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to a female student at the Law School who has demonstrated a sustained and passionate commitment to the achievement of equality of opportunity and access in the justice system.
The daughter of Kurdish refugees who fled to the United States, Zibari volunteered in Kurdistan as a caretaker for refugee children while in college. At the law school, she is involved in the Women’s Law Caucus, the Journal of International Law, and the Public Interest Law Association, and she volunteers for the Mithoff Pro Bono Program’s Expunction Project. This summer she will work with Capital Area Private Defender Service in Austin and the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas in Dallas. Zibari hopes to become an international human rights lawyer.
Zibari received the scholarship April 26 in the Law School’s Eidman Courtroom during the annual “Color of Justice” program, the goal of which is to encourage minority high school students from the Austin area to consider law and the judiciary as career paths. Travis County Criminal Court Judge Karen Sage presented the scholarship. Judge Sage also recognized Travis County Civil Court Judge Orlinda Naranjo for her years of leadership spearheading the program. The 2018 event was cosponsored by the National Association of Women Judges and the Travis County Women Lawyers Association with the Law School’s William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law and Jackson Walker LLP.