Public Interest Fellowship

Thank you for your interest in the APALSA 1L Public Interest Fellowship. The Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, through the Fellowship, provides grants to University of Michigan Law School students who are in their first year of law school, are dues-paying members of APALSA, and work in unpaid or low-paid summer jobs benefiting the public interest and the Asian Pacific American community.

Created in 2005, the APALSA Public Interest Fellowship provides funding to highly qualified first-year students who will work for public interest organizations during the summer following their first year of law school. The goal of the fellowship is to encourage Asian Pacific American law students to begin their careers in the public interest, nonprofit, and government sectors, where they can support and contribute to the Asian American community through their legal careers. Past recipients of the fellowship have used the funding to support their work at OneJustice, the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and many other organizations.

The awards will be presented at our Annual Origins Banquet in the Spring. Applicants must be present at the banquet to receive the award, unless attendance is specifically waived by the APALSA Executive Board on the basis of compelling extenuating circumstances. In past years, our fellowships have provided students with up to $6,000 in financial support for the summer.

Eligibility

To be eligible for this Fellowship, the applicant must:

• Be a current first-year law student of the University of Michigan Law School;
• Have paid dues for the 2026–2027 academic year to APALSA; and
• Work in a legal public interest job during the summer of 2027 (this includes judicial internships).