Penn State Dickinson's PILF Receives National Recognition

Carlisle, PA (August 27, 2004) — The Penn State Dickinson School of Law's Public Interest Law Fund (PILF) was recognized as a finalist for the American Bar Association's (ABA) 2004 Judy M. Weightman Memorial Public Interest National Division of the Year Award.

Penn State Dickinson's PILF, a student-run organization that promotes the practice of law in the public interest arena, was identified as a finalist based upon the following award criteria (as outlined by the ABA): the type and quality of public interest project/program sponsored by PILF that exemplifies the ideals of public interest and serve to benefit the community; and overall participation, reaction and commitment to public interest project/activity/programming by students, faculty and administration.

The organization concentrates its efforts on fundraising initiatives that underwrite its Cherie M. Millage Summer Fellowship program , which enables Penn State Dickinson students to accept summer employment with public interest firms and organizations that desperately need student assistance but do not have the resources to compensate summer interns. The group's primary fundraising event is an annual auction that last year raised more than $8,000.

This past summer, three students benefited from $5,600 stipends awarded through the PILF-funded fellowship program. Vincent Avagliano '05 participated in The Workplace Project, which assists low-wage earning Latino immigrant workers in Long Island, NY, fight exploitation by providing labor-related legal support in addition to community education and worker-owned cooperative programs; Joanna Litt '05 helped provide pro-bono legal services to low income clients with civil claims at Delaware Volunteer Legal Services; and Marci Sideman-Miller '06 was an advocate for the preservation and promotion of civil liberties with the American Civil Liberties Union of South Central Pennsylvania.