Name: Esma Karakas

Recipient Year: 2024

Major: Law

Description: Esma Karakas is a third-year law student at American University Washington College of Law and a Public Interest Public Service Scholar. Before law school, she contributed to her community in St. Louis as a community organizer, researcher, and resettlement service coordinator. Esma co-founded two initiatives supporting refugees and asylum seekers, a deeply personal effort due to her own experience as a displaced person. Since starting law school, Esma has worked as a student attorney in her school’s Re-entry Clinic, externed with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and interned at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and the Legal Action Center. She aims to pursue civil rights law, focusing on the rights of noncitizens and the criminalization of dissent both domestically and internationally.

School Name: American University Washington College of Law

Sponsor: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Scholarship