NCAWA provides scholarships to deserving women students attending the state’s law schools.  This award has been named in honor of retired Chief Justice Sarah Parker of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. 

In past years, NCAWA offered the Sarah Parker Scholarship Awards to a deserving female student at each law school in North Carolina.  In the academic year 2018-2019, NCAWA began offering two (2) Sarah Parker Scholarship Awards, each in the amount of $2,000, to two women students from North Carolina’s law schools.  Scholarship recipients are leaders and/or active in their law schools and communities.  Scholarship recipients are students who best exemplify, in their approach to the study and future practice of law, the incorporation of NCAWA’s goals of assuring the effective participation of women in the justice system and in public office, promoting the rights of women under the law and promoting and improving the administration of justice.

Prospective scholarship recipients must be law school students who are continuing their education through the fall semester of the current calendar year and cannot be graduating third-year law students. 


2022 Sarah Parker Scholarship Award Winners

Gabrielle Mangru Delgado

Gabrielle Mangru Delgado is a third-year student at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Although Gabby was born just outside Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, she spent her childhood in Tampa, Florida. Her passion for service drew her to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York where she majored in International Law and Portuguese Language. There, she volunteered with organizations focused on helping special needs children and wounded warriors. She also conducted field research in Kampala, Uganda for her honors thesis which examined the relationship between the rule of law and access to water in the city’s slum areas.

After graduating in 2014, Gabby spent over five years serving as an Army officer. While on active duty, she served as the secretary of her local regimental volunteer organization and ran numerous food, coat, and toy drives for her unit’s soldiers and their families. Following her Army service, she returned home to North Carolina and interned with her local congressman where she handled constituent support and contributed to the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project.

While in law school, Gabby served as co-President of the Asian American Law Students Association and Vice President of Women in Law, and currently serves as the 3L Class President. She also serves as the Family Readiness Group leader for her husband’s Army unit on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She has maintained her commitment to service through pro bono efforts including working with the UNC Innocence Project, manning the resource center COVID-19 helpline, and helping veterans upgrade their discharge status. Most recently, while working as a summer associate, she helped prepare a pro bono client’s petition before the North Carolina Juvenile Sentence Review Board. After graduation, Gabby intends to continue her pro bono and community service work in Raleigh, North Carolina.

 

Lexus Real

Lexus Real HeadshotLexus is a third-year law student at North Carolina Central University School of Law. She was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from Oakland University with a Bachelor of Science in Integrative Studies and a minor in Criminal Justice. Between graduation and starting law school She took a gap year. During that gap year, Lexus worked as a residential care specialist at a domestic violence shelter where she volunteered during my undergrad. She also worked at a substance abuse rehabilitation center. Both jobs involved advocating for the rights of clients who were in unfortunate situations and providing additional resources so that they could start fresh.

At NCCU, she serves as the President of the Women’s Law Caucus. Lexus has been a member of the Women’s Law Caucus since starting my law school journey and was previously the Secretary. This year they hosted an educational panel on domestic violence called “Action + Awareness.” They also sent feminine hygiene products to Africa for teenage girls in schools. She is also a member of the Black Law Students Association.

During the summer of her 1L year through the spring of her 2L year she worked as a legal intern for Elroi. Elroi is a data privacy company that encourages consumers to exercise their privacy rights and control their data. During her 2L year, she participated in and won the Legal Design Derby hosted by Duke University. The Derby challenged them with providing a solution on how to maximize access to justice during the Covid – 19 pandemic. Her team produced and pitched the product of a mobile courtroom and legal clinic. They wanted to make sure that despite someone's lack of resources, they would still receive high-quality legal advocacy.

This summer she worked as a research assistant for NCCU Law Technology and Policy Center. She will continue to work as a research assistant until the spring semester. She is also currently participating in the Criminal Defense Clinic at my school where she will be handling misdemeanor criminal representation. She is interested in technology law and criminal law. After graduation, she plans to work as a criminal defense attorney. Additionally, she plans to combine her two interest areas and create legal technology that will give people in underrepresented communities access to legal resources.


 Sarah Parker Scholarship Recipients:

  • 2021 - Dorothy Chen, Margaret Hay
  • 2020 - Mireya Colin, Henna J. Shah
  • 2019 - Erica Bluford, Jacqueline Canzoneri
  • 2018 - Lauren Franklin, Niti Parthasarathy